Shards of Insanity
by K.Columbine
Summary: Returning to Hogwarts with a war lapping at its feet right after a war of her own had just ended probably wasn't the best of ideas that she had, but in all her desperation it seemed to be the only way to forget. How he would laugh at her in his dark cell in hell.
1. Chapter 1

September first had dawned and the cold had finally settled on the darkest city that the planet had ever dared to own, not that it wasn't ever cold in dark and depraved Gotham City, but the weather man in the skies had decided that winter had been put off long enough and thrust the city into the freezing abyss that was the "dead season". A man, who had been awake for more than forty eight hours already due to the worries that plagued his young soul, sat on the top most balcony in his mansion situated in the Palisades either not caring about the chill in the air or forgetting entirely as he gazed to the skies. The scuffing of shoes of his butler only distracted him momentarily for him to return to his watchfulness of the dark. His butler drew up to him his expression only slightly betraying the signs of worry of all the happenings which had occurred and he smiled because he had to so that the rest of the world could continue with living.

"Waiting for the sun to come up? Because it isn't going to show up for another few hours," He attempted meekly at a joke to ease the young man's apparent distress, but took on a more sombre note when he saw that it did not work. "Relax, Master Bruce, she will have sent a letter to confirm her arrival to school and her settle."

"What if she hasn't arrived though, Alfred? The mob may be following her for revenge over what her father has done and the Joker-" Bruce began and cut off when the lunatic's moniker passed his lips inhaling sharply and ending the statement.

"She will have arrived; you had Lucius see her off to the station and call you when she passed the barrier and you made sure to put her on the most secure flight to London, their mail works a lot slower than ours does so her letter will be rather delayed, remember?" Alfred spoke trying his best to quell Bruce's anxiety.

"I won't believe it until I see her letter," Bruce said and Alfred knew there was little he could do to ease his obsession with waiting for the letter.

"Very well then, shall I make you some tea before you catch your cold for while you wait sir?" Alfred asked knowing that at least there was some worth for a little tea to calm the nerves.

"Yes please," Bruce had replied rather half heartedly looking to his wrist watch for the hundredth time that night.

Alfred had turned away to the door which led inside and made his descend into the kitchen area of the mansion to prepare tea. While the tea was drawing in the pot he caught sight of the headlines of the previous day's paper: _Batman, still at large and still a danger!_ The second headline forced the tears over the first to leak over his cheeks: _Harvey Dent's daughter, to grieve at school?_ The media and the police had been the worst aggravator in the entire mess that was the aftermath of something terrible that had come to pass. Where were the parades of joy? Where was everyone being relieved that a darker time had ended? Why wasn't anyone revelling in the new found freedom from crippling fear? Why couldn't anyone let their troubles wash away and be glad that a new era had come to Gotham? And why couldn't they let the poor girl grieve in her own space instead of being surrounded by incessant questions which did not help her?

After some time of pondering all of this Alfred had dried his cheeks up and plastered the smile back on his face to aid the world further and placed the tea on a tray to bring up. His climb was uninterrupted and quiet and when he reached Bruce he placed the tray on the table on the balcony and left him silently knowing there was little he could do to coax him out of his troubled mind. When he returned with breakfast the sun was up and the tea was cold, but what brought him some happiness was that Bruce was reclined in the seat next to the table an owl perched on top waiting patiently and a letter was clutched in Bruce's sleeping hand to his chest. Things could finally become better.


	2. Chapter 2

"Good luck." Those were the words which followed me through the barrier to the other side of the platform spoken by my new guardian's employee, Lucius Fox, and I needed them.

I breathed in deeply taking in the sight of the Hogwarts Express and exhaled quickly in quick and utter relief knowing that I was finally safe from the prying eyes of the muggle press which followed me around like parasites constantly trying to squeeze information out my person. I stepped away from the barrier knowing that more people would be coming through soon and they wouldn't be all too pleased to find a despondent me standing around like an idiot. I moved around on the platform for a while trying to find a person that I could recognise and spotting a shiny head of blond hair bobbing around with oversized spectacles miss-matched from her blue outfit. I pushed my trolley over to where Luna Lovegood was conversing with her father about an article in the magazine he owned and they turned to my presence.

"Hello," I said in my best overly cheerful voice that I had been practising tirelessly on. "Would you mind braving the masses with me in the search for a compartment?"

"Hello Emily, you have Nargles flying all around your head today, your infestation must have gotten worse over the holidays," Luna responded and I smiled genuinely at her gentle quirks.

"Have they really?" I humoured her. "We best get rid of them soon then, I wouldn't want them bothering me in my studies this year."

"Oh terrible thing a Nargle infestation is, Luna, I will send you the best in ridding you of them," Luna's father said to her in a grave voice and turned to us at large. "I must be getting along, the darling garden gnomes need tending to."

"Okay, good bye father, will you send them my regards?" Luna asked a slight spark in her eyes.

"I will, now good bye and be good," her father looked into her eyes with an intense solemnity.

"Good bye Mr Lovegood," I called after him as he briskly walked away Luna's promise floating after him. "Shall we go find a compartment?" I looked to Luna.

"Sure," she replied and we turned to climb into the train.

Finding a compartment wasn't difficult and settling down wasn't either, I had decided to change into my robes before the train started moving so I grabbed my bundle and moved off to the lavatories to change. When I found myself in them I took a moment to breathe and slowly count to fifty, after a while counting to ten hadn't become all that helpful as the images would continue to burn through my skull. I pulled off my muggle clothes and proceeded to change into my uniform all the while noticing that the burns on my arms were turning a strange shade of yellow and the stab wound on my back was beginning to itch under the stitching. I turned to my reflection and empty blue eyes stared back at me from purple sockets contrasting with the pale flesh of no sunlight for the entire summer. I downed a tranquilizer knowing I would soon need one sighing as I left the stall gathering my things with me.

I returned to Luna in a haze of my own thoughts and confusion in so much of a trance that I may have jostled quite a few people on my way back except I didn't remember quite clearly enough. I tucked into the compartment and exchanged a few pleasantries with Luna about her holiday and such, when asked about mine I replied that it had been eventless. I soon faded off and did not take much notice of the new people who had arrived into our compartment except for a cursory glance at any threats they may pose to me, force of habit. I fell asleep, the effects of the strong pill my doctor had given me finally kicking in, as they were rambling on about introductions and a plant somebody's uncle or something had given them as a birthday gift.

_The abandoned warehouse only contained a few noises; the dripping of leaky and old plumbing, the loud and laboured breathing of my lunatic captor and my desperate gasps of my lungs slowly collapsing through pneumonia. Footsteps, irregular in movement and grating in presence were becoming louder from behind me and I struggled harder in the restraints which held me to the old, rusted chair. I panicked as I felt a leather clad hand slam down on my broken shoulder and clamp hard pulling me rigid against its owner's chest a face pressing itself against my cheek._

"_Don't, uh, panic now, there is no use for that," the "t" was spit into my ear and I wriggled a whimper escaping me._

_A foul breath laughed into my face and a second leather clad hand was found pressed against my stomach._

"_Now, doll, there is always time for that later," the hand pressed down hard restricting my breath. "For now though, you have been...ah. Very. Bad girl! And daddy needs to be punished."_

_I half moaned half yelled out a "no" which was met with more rancid laughter and the other leather clad hand joined its partner in squeezing the life out of my stomach. My body reacted in a futile attempt to tug out of the restraints only splitting the flesh of my wrists with the blood dripping slowly to the floor to join the rest of my blood._

"_No, no, no, no, no. There is NO escaping allowed or daddy is going to get very hurt, okay?" The hands left me momentarily only for their owner's body to be thrust into my space his face pressing against mine smearing make up in the process._

_Only one thing clouded my vision now and it was scars and those manic eyes the foul odour of a breath not brushed pervading my nostrils turning my already empty stomach._

"_Say "hi" to daddy for me," this beast of a human cackled with laughter and before I even registered it a dagger was thrust into my chest my scream deafening me as it echoed through the halls where no one would come to help._

I jerked awake and instantly started dry heaving clawing at my stomach and my wrists trying to ease myself and that it was only a dream, it was nothing to panic about. I still could not help the terror and darkness clawing at my heart trying desperately in vain to look around for my father only to discover he was not there and was never coming back. Tears leaked from my eyes and I closed them in an attempt to quell the water works and swallowed a few shaky breaths the extra oxygen seeming to help. I jumped as I felt a hand rest on my back and looked into the eyes of someone familiar, it was Hermione Granger, but when did she get here? I must have been out for quite some time because the sky was turning dark and everyone's eyes were trained on me a familiar feeling of discomfort immediately rose in me sensing their unanswerable questions about to explode and pry into my existence.

"Are you all right?" A voice pulled me back into reality and I looked back to Hermione.

"Uh...yeah," I drawled by habit and quickly recovered my tone lying as I did so. "I just get a bad case a motion sickness so I get something to put me to sleep, but they give me really vivid dreams and in turn make me feel sick."

"Are you sure?" Hermione looked at me with worry crossing her eyes.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, I will be fine as soon as I find solid ground," my reassurance worked and she backed off and so did everyone else look the other way except Luna who had her face scrunched up.

"Didn't you say that you and your dad would sort those out during the holidays?" she asked and a brief flash of pain lit up my face in remembrance of my father which quickly passed.

"Yeah, except he was really busy with his job and his promotion, it is a very twenty four hours type of job," I wasn't really lying, but I knew that it wasn't the truth which is why I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

"Oh! So he was promoted like you were hoping for?" Luna asked excitement shining in her eyes. "What was it like?"

"It was, really heroic, he did a great deal more than his predecessor and he almost saved the city," my memory softened as I remembered my father in his speeches and his running around every where saving the day in a way only a mortal man like him could do. "He was magnificent."

The other occupants of the compartment had turned to watch us as we spoke and I saw a bizarre glimmer pass through the raven haired youth's, Harry Potter, eyes and I knew he wanted to know more except I wasn't willing enough to share more than what was necessary.

"That is wonderful, it sounds like it was such an exciting adventure," Luna spoke softly and I was thankful for her way in ending the conversation so we could all stare into space until the train ground to a halt.

Luna and I climbed off the train with the rest of our compartment sharers and we split up and got together in our search for the carriages and I shuddered at the customary sight of the Thestrals in all their un-dead glory. Luna patted me slightly on the upper half of my back and reassured Harry that he wasn't crazy that he could see them and that she had been able to see them all of her life. I smiled at him before he got into the carriage as I knew that his friend, Ron, wasn't so convinced of his sanity and I nodded silently in the Thestral's direction letting him know that he wasn't alone. Our journey up to the castle did not bear any significant fruitions only that the others were silently fretting over the Hagrid teacher who was yet to show his face. I found myself sinking back into my thoughts and foolishly forgot to count to fifty as they soon took a turn for the worse with me violently jumping back from a make-up face outside the dark window and accidentally knocking into Luna.

"Are you feeling quite fine, Emily, you have been rather off this whole journey?" she asked with a lilt of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I am so sorry, I am just super nervous today," my lies needed to come to an end and I needed to pull myself together or Bruce would have a heart attack if he found out and pull me out back into that dark and oppressive city that I had to call home.

"It is fine, we are all scared of him," this time it was Harry who spoke and instantly my paranoia flared up only to remember that Lord Voldemort had returned and a few jumpy students wouldn't be all that uncommon and a natural association would run.

"Thanks," I let out a breath and pondered my sanity as I had only now remembered that Lord Voldemort had returned.

Of course I believed Harry Potter that he had returned; magic was crazy enough that it was highly possible and Harry usually turned out to be correct in many things regarding what he saw with his own eyes, I did not need Ministry approval for my beliefs. What made me question my sanity, however, is what am I, broken and tortured Emily Dent, doing back at Hogwarts in the Wizarding World where another psychopath was running around? Of course I had not a mention of it to Bruce or in his already freaked and paranoid state would have pulled me out instantly and kept me the Muggle World to be blasted by the media. My sanity was clearly damaged in some way if I thought that this was the most intelligent thing to do right after being discharged from "suicide watch". What if I wasn't truly "better" like the doctors said and what if I had an episode on a larger scale than the other episode? I was now beginning to regret my decision and a slight cackling was heard from within my mind which raised the hairs on the back of my neck, they sounded like _his_.

The gentle jerking of the carriage stopping pulled me out of my revere and signalled to us all that it was time to get out and walk to the feast that awaited us in the Great Hall. After our compartment sharers gave us a funny look Luna and I parted from them to find seats at our house table and waited for the first years who stumbled in some time later looking like terrified, lost lambs. Their sorting went smoothly, however, the Sorting Hat's speech was laden with warnings and advice which I knew that no one would take seriously in a school environment, the teenage mind did not heed anything other than hormonal impulses. The feast had been an overwhelming blur of colours as people cheerfully discussed their holidays and their hopes and dreams for the year. Demeaning gossip snippets flew through the air about Harry Potter and his "delusions" which had me narrowing my eyes a bit in irritation towards the rumour mill and everything it worked for. The people around us left Luna and I alone so we were content to eat (Luna) and brood (me) in silence without having to bother much with lying. I looked around observing the happenings around me and settled on the staff table watching the staff dynamics; they seemed closer, but in a strained manner the way their smiles failed to meet their eyes and the way that they regarded the pink dressed woman with obvious disdain and distrust. I quickly looked away when the headmaster's, professor Dumbledore, eyes met mine for a second too long and continued to stare glumly at my barely touched plate. The doctors said that it was a medical and very literal case of Anorexia, but I was sure that my appetite was sure to return with Hogwarts cooking and being far away from the stresses of Gotham, I hoped.

The feast soon drew to a close and professor Dumbledore rose from his seat to start the term with the recent and not so recent notices for the school to take note on; he introduced the new teachers and was shortly interrupted by the woman dressed in pink. The new Defence teacher irritated me as she kept on babbling on about political propaganda which my father saw fit to teach and warn me against and I found myself twitchily glancing around, a bored habit born out of paranoia. People, I saw, were becoming tired of her bothersome speech and resorted to childish means of entertainment which aggravated my sense of alertness so I continued to stare at the head table frowning when all was concluded and the students as a whole rose from their tables. I continued sitting and told Luna to go ahead without me because I needed to have something done first while the hall cleared of all students eager to go to their warm beds.

The Great Hall was empty finally, of all people so I pulled out of my charmed magical bag a writing pad and a pen, I used them in secret as the quills just irritated me with their constant need for attention and reduced writing time. I placed my paper flat on the table and wrote to Bruce as I had promised him.

_Dear Bruce,_

_Guess what? I made it to Hogwarts! The trip up north was rather uneventful and no one from our world seems to be clued in on what has happened in the media's recent spot light. Things seem mundane as ever and normal, devoid of what we have had to fight in Gotham, such so that it is almost bizarre and not real. I have remembered my medication to keep me feeling happy and I have you in my thoughts constantly so if I ever have a crisis I will instantly know who to call upon; of course if you don't already have the place surrounded and a satellite camera trained on me at all times, you know I jest. There is nothing much else to report back on as I have only been here a couple of hours, our agreement still stands for a once weekly letter so look to the skies come Friday. I really hope you are doing fine and trying to move on and time will only tell. Send my love and regards to Alfred and Lucius when you can._

_Love,_

_Emily._

My letter to Bruce felt somewhat brief and insincere, but it was the best I could do for now as there honestly wasn't anything I could do myself justice to worry him over, the signs and symptoms would fade eventually. I folded the page neatly and placed it in an envelope labelling it with care trying my best to put off moving away from this comfortable position. Eventually I conceded defeat after all of my writing materials was packed away and the only thing was for me to move off to find my owl for delivery. I moved silently through the castle with my efforts to not run into teachers positively rewarded, I was only slightly spooked by the darkness and sighed when I finally found my owl, Scarecrow, perched on a window sill looking pensively out at the moon lit grounds.

"Hey, I have a delivery for you my dear," I spoke to her and she turned her head with a hoot. "Can you give this to Bruce Wayne, where we live now, and on return you can have all of my toast?"

Scarecrow ruffled her feathers and stuck her leg out for me to attach the letter which I did so with some of the new strength string Lucius had given me while he was showing me around the bottom floor of Wayne Enterprises. Scarecrow had taken off with a pleasant hoot leaving me to stare at the grounds in a lost trance of non-existent thought. My chest burned from a slight chill and I was forced to make the long and arduous walk to the Ravenclaw Tower to answer a riddle of my own before I let myself restlessly lie in bed after my compulsory medication run.


	3. Chapter 3

My first day back was spent in a paranoid haze jumping when the customary bangs went off in the corridors and almost falling of my seat in Defence when the woman dressed in pink shouted at Harry and his subsequent slam of the classroom door, a few people who saw me sniggered slightly. I had sat in the Great Hall that morning in a small hope that Scarecrow had flown fast and a reply would be in the mail, but I had left after nothing had come and sat in front of my first class counting to fifty and downing a tranquillizer to keep calm. I did not go to lunch or supper and read a book on psychology I had purchased after my ordeal to keep me occupied instead deciding that silence would probably help me more in the long run. When the Ravenclaw common room had started filling at the end of the day I took out my homework and sat with Luna as we completed all of our tasks. Luna had told me in earnest that her father was still in the search for the Nargle cure and I had smiled telling her not to let it worry her too much and that I could ignore them for time being.

"But Emily, your infestation is really bad, you haven't been yourself and you have been jumping all around the place," she had insisted and I had wondered if I was being too obvious, with an internal laugh I remarked to myself that I probably looked like a bit of a wreck with my twitchy behaviour.

"Please don't worry too much about me, a few months of Hogwarts and I will be right as rain," my words were laden with hope that they would be true and I think Luna noticed my desperate hope as she changed the subject asking for help with something in Potions.

I explained to her what professor Snape had set and how he wanted it answered and let myself get lost in the school work to distract myself from my tears which tried to push themselves out of my tear ducts. Luna had thanked me after I had explained the task to her and I nodded in acknowledgement telling her that if that was all then I was going to bed. She had said that she had nothing else so I bid her a good night and climbed the stairs to bed to change clothes and take my evening meds. After my obligatory task was complete I had let myself fall into bed to stare at the ceiling with the curtains drawn around my bed so that my dormitory sharers wouldn't see the tears which always came at night. Surprisingly sleep came after about an hour or two and my subconscious let rip.

"_What do you mean "she got away"?" a man's yell sounded from some space away._

"_We mean that she shot Mumbles and ran with his gun, Dent's kid has got more guts than we would have thought," a second voice drawled out._

"_You know what this means, right? That when the Joker finds out we are all on the chopping block as well as our families," the first voice was raised in terror this time._

_My heart was beating frantically as I hid behind the corner of the storage room, my way out only a simple run blocked by the two who spoke about getting me back and making me sorry for my desertion. They had eventually moved away and I sprinted to the exit not caring about the intense pain searing through my lungs and the way my head felt ready to nod off, all I had fuelling me was adrenalin this time. I had reached the exit and slipped out quietly making sure to keep the scant weapons I had on me with me and straightening my clothes. I turned to the gate to the road and was blocked by another one of _his_ goons so, not wanting anymore noise; I took out a smooth blade and crept up behind him positioning myself perfectly. I slipped the blade across this nameless man's neck, he fell to the floor in a horrifying gurgle and I tip toed down the stairs only to be suddenly stopped by a manacle around my ankle attached to a rusty chain leading to the door. A cracking sound emitted from the man I had just killed and I stared, horrified, as his body morphed and his clothes changed. A grotesque clown wearing a purple trench coat rose from the ground blood dripping from his neck and the blade I had just killed him with in his hand and I found myself without my weapons. I subconsciously took a step back only to stumble and fall painfully on my back a smart yell coming from my mouth._

"_You aren't trying to get away from me are you?" this monster giggled. "Killing a man doesn't warrant you as a very good girl, what would daddy say? I think he would be mad, I think he would be sad that his little girl has finally been corrupted by our little anarchy an'...that. You. Are MINE!"_

_I screamed as the monster's visage rushed at me consuming me and ripping at my soul._

I sat up from bed in a cold sweat and ran to the bathrooms into a cold shower, clothes and all, as bile and tears forced their way up and into the drainage system as I sobbed trying to keep a hold on my sanity. I violently tore off my clothes and scrubbed the uninjured parts of my body raw in the cold water of the shower watching as my skin turned red. I yelled in the confines of the shower asking no one in particular why they had not stopped and why did he have to go. I yelled one more time and shut the water off due to the tightening of my lungs from the cold and a residual trace of pneumonia. I dried myself off and changed into my robes for the day as I saw that I wasn't going to get anymore sleep and I wasn't all too fond of my dreams right now any way. I returned my belongings to my trunk and collecting the things I would need for the day I made my way to the common room to exit the Ravenclaw Tower deciding that I needed to go for a walk with the time I had on my hands. I thankfully did not run into any prowling teachers, I was starting to worry about my "luck" with that issue, and after an hour of aimless wanderings I had found myself at a dead end in that I was lost.

I cursed my "luck" with the foulest of words I had picked up in Gotham and tried to remember what I was doing to get lost in a castle that I had practically lived in for four years. Oh yeah, I was being a pathetic wimp letting my dreams and suppressed memories scare me into submission to my fears! I was getting rather aggravated that what that monster had done to me has turned me into a psychotic mess. I groaned and began to attempt to retrace my steps trying to not get lost in the process of getting un-lost and thanked which ever star I had left that I was lost on the upper half of the school and not in the dungeons where getting out would be extremely hard. I began to think too much on getting un-lost that I sunk back into my thoughts and walked around in circles getting more lost that I was considering calling for help this time, but a memory of an explosion held my tongue. Coming to my senses I stopped and looked around myself for a window to discern my position, but found portraits "sleeping" on the wall so I decided that one of them may be my guide.

"Excuse me, good sir," I addressed a portrait of an old scholar and he snorted awake. "Can you direct me to the main stair case?"

"Um, yes, little lady, if you walk down this corridor and take your second left and then first right you should walk for several minutes and you should find it," the sleepy portrait mumbled back.

"Thank you so much and I am so sorry for interrupting your sleep," I told the portrait and walked of in his direction with his acknowledgement following me.

The scholar portrait's directions had worked well in my favour and I found myself standing on a landing in the main stair case. I checked my wrist watch and found that I had two hours to spare before the mail would arrive so I decided that a walk to the lake and back should be sufficient enough a time filler. Walking down the stairs, however, I felt oddly enough as if someone was watching me and I looked around me in a paranoid skitter trying to find the ghost eyes which made me feel off. By the time I was on the ground floor I had started hurrying so much that when I exited the castle it was at a sprint so wild that I tripped over the threshold and landed with a terrified shriek echoing into the dark of dawn. I lay in the foetal position shivering like the lunatic I had become staring at the stars and muttering silently to myself under my breath. My wrists were starting to hurt from the pressure of my holding on to them so hard when suddenly out of the blue it hit me and I started to laugh. It hit me that no one was following me and no one was watching me because no one had any need to because _he_ was locked up in Arkham Asylum because Bruce put _him_ there because my father was corrupted and my father is dead! That fact had hit me so hard that when I shakily stood up, after falling down with my first three attempts, I fell right back down against the castle doors and cried with much gusto that I was sure that someone would have heard if they were nearby my general vicinity. I cried, however, for what must have been half an hour, I cried all my grief and my anger out and I tried desperately to accept everything that had come to pass; my abduction, Rachel's death, my father's death and his corruption, Bruce's guilt and participation, and everything that _he_ had bought about. My tears eventually stopped when I found that I could cry no more and my wretched sobbing stopped when the pain became too much and my face smoothed out when the emotion had finally left me feeling exhausted for the first time.

I had waited about ten minutes to collect my energy before heading to the second floor bathroom to clean my appearance up so people wouldn't be affronted by my blotchy face and questions wouldn't arise. The cold water was a welcomed splash in my face and I let it run over my hands for several minutes in a dumb trance until I remembered that I needed to wait for Bruce's reply. I exited the bathroom downing a tranquillizer in the process to keep my thoughts numbed and walked down two flights of stairs to the Great Hall to wait and prepare some toast for Scarecrow when the food had finally appeared on the tables. People were beginning to come to breakfast and wait for the mail finally after the sun had risen properly enough and their presence made me feel on edge with all their loud chatter. I discreetly swallowed another tranquillizer just as the mail had become flying in and I looked eagerly to the roof to find Scarecrow's arrival and as if on cue she flew in landing on the plate I had prepared for her. She had two things, a letter and a small box, attached to her which I eagerly untied from her legs and opened up the letter first.

_Dear Emily,_

_Thank you so much for your letter confirming your arrival, I was so worried that you had decided that you wouldn't want to return to your studies although, I am still worried about whether or not this is the best action for you. I just want for you to be safe and I want for this to be the best decision to keep you happy and safe, I am glad though, that this school seems to have a good safety measure and that nothing seems to be going askew in this world. Alfred and Lucius would like to send their love back to you and are already missing you. Enclosed in the small box is something of your father's which Commissioner Gordon had managed to retrieve before the police had taken everything off the scene, I thought that you would far prefer to keep it with you. I am already missing you terribly so and I look forward to seeing you in December and remember; any signs of trouble, and you have to write to come home and I wouldn't be phased in the slightest. Over all; I wish you a good term and good luck with your studies._

_Love,_

_Bruce._

Bruce's letter filled me with a sense of happiness and guilt at the same time for not coping all too well with my first few days and I resolved to fight the nightmares that _he_ had given me and the psychosis which _he_ had produced. I knew that to resolve to "fight" it was rather weak, but if I threw myself into my life at Hogwarts a bit more I knew that it would subside somewhat. I looked up and saw that Scarecrow had finished and was looking at me expectantly the little box sitting beside her.

"Thank you sweet heart, you can go sleep off this crazy jet lag you must have by now," I stroked her gently on the head and she took off to find somewhere quiet to sleep.

I looked around and saw that no one of much note was present in the Great Hall so I took the little box and my belongings and left to my first class of the day, Charms. I sat in the empty class room and placed the little box on the table in front of me, I swallowed whatever fear I had in me and tore the tape keeping it securely shut off throwing it on the floor in my blind rush and flipped the lid off. In the little box sat a silver looking coin, I picked it up gingerly looking from the burnt half to the clean half an eagle sitting proudly on both. My father's "lucky" coin; he had used it in a half joking manner to "determine" his fate, but he had told me that it was a bravery thing that it helped him with his resolve to a big and frightening decision. I loved him for this, taking on the big and scary world of Gotham when he was just as worried about whether or not he was doing the world any good and his honesty with me, our talks about good and evil and being the best person we could ever be. I clutched the coin in my hand and hugged it to my chest a smile on my lips and tears shining in my eyes, I would try to make his clean half proud so that Harvey Dent could, indeed, rest in peace. The bell eventually rang signalling the beginning of the lesson bringing me out of my stupid revere and I stuffed the coin in a pocket which was closest and most secure to my body.

People loaded into the classroom and my head of house started our lesson with a lecture on the importance of the year and not letting our attentions waver in any unfavourable directions which I had slightly sniggered to, unfavourable attention. The rest of class was spent on professor Flitwick talking about the syllabus for the year and how the class was to tackle it, homework was of course assigned to the groaning of the students and the bell rang. Transfiguration was a far sterner talking to and the syllabus was discussed as in the previous class and professor McGonagall saw it fit to assign more homework. Lunch couldn't have come sooner and I rushed to the Library to check a spell I needed now to complete a task I had a burning desire to have done. I twitched through the aisles and found the book I needed checking the spell. Satisfied that my task would work I took out my father's coin. I concentrated on an image and cast a chain to tightly connect the coin to my neck, clean side up, magically sealing it so that it would never fall off and could never be removed. I let my fingers brush over the surface of the coin and a smile rose to my face. I was so happy now that I put away the book and gathered my stuff skipping out of the Library down to my next class which was Care of Magical Creatures on the school grounds.

The class passed without much incident except for the eyes that I felt trailing after me as I worked on my own with the bothersome stick creature that had a nasty habit of biting me. After an exceptionally hard bite I let out a yelp and gave up throwing the creature in the teacher's direction telling her that it was a faulty animal. She told me to go watch what Hermione Granger was doing until the end of the lesson so I sidled up to her gently with an anxious smile and tried not to listen too hard to her discussion with her friends regarding Draco Malfoy. The next lesson began with me telling Luna not to worry about waiting for me at supper and that I had tons of homework which needed tending to and for the second time she had asked if I was feeling fine which I replied with a hearty acquiescence. After we were let in the Greenhouse we were met with another lecture and homework ending off with fertilizing a few pots. The class moved as a whole to the Entrance Hall and I saw, with a frown, that Hermione gave me a skew look as I split from them running to my common room to complete my homework and start on my assignments due for the future. The first wave of after dinner students were coming in so I packed my school work up and got ready for bed taking my evening meds and slipping under the covers holding onto the coin around my neck with hope that the nightmares would be chased off by this act.


	4. Chapter 4

My week had passed in a bit of a blur and the only thing I had managed to take in was my school work concentrating enough to have assignments and homework completed with enough competence. I had written and sent my letter to Bruce on Friday thanking him for the coin and updating him with enough mundane information to keep him happy and at ease. I had not managed to shove more than a morning piece of toast down my throat every day, but it was a start and that meant that I had more time to spend on school work. My nightmares still occurred nightly which kept me awake and at my four o'clock explorations of the castle, but I was beginning to get a hold over my psychosis, if not ending it controlling the way I reacted to hallucinations and sounds. My focus on what was happening around me with people and events was becoming rather bad and I found myself clueless about the castle's inhabitants by the end of the week. The weekend was a bit of a scatter without lessons to ground me and I spent all of it awake not bothering with nightmares which would put me in a stressful state; I spent it finishing the psychology book. The way I had spent my entire week may or may not have prepared me for what had awaited me on Monday morning.

The Daily Prophet had apparently put a bit of a stir around the school about some new High Inquisitor and I had looked up to the staff table to get a look at the new person, but found that he or she had not arrived yet and the staff was looking rather ominously around while the woman dressed in pink was looking rather smug. I had frowned realising that I had completely missed her name which was a bit of an embarrassment seeing as I was in her class, but it was far too late to ask her name now. A small hoot had caught my attention as Scarecrow landed in front of me with Bruce's reply which I had discovered was in a large manila envelope which was rather full looking. I pushed some of my toast in Scarecrow's direction while detaching the envelope from her leg and opening it with trepidation taking out the thinnest piece of paper which, from the stationery stamp, was Bruce's letter.

_Dear Emily,_

_I am so glad to hear that you are doing so well in your studies and focusing hard at your subjects although, I don't want you to neglect normal teenage stuff like making friends and getting to know the ones you have better. I am pleased to find that you are doing better with regards to your moods and your happiness. Alfred would like to send his regards and love by the way. I am sure you are by now wondering what is enclosed in this lovely big manila envelope, which arrived on Friday evening, and unless you have already looked at it I will tell you what it is. Those papers are the official adoption papers from the state; these are the colour copies of course the originals are kept safe where no one can get to them. Now if you don't feel up to looking at them then don't, I just thought that it would be nice to have a copy to look at when you are ready. Otherwise, I am doing fine thank you for asking and life is going as per usual, a few new Investors are showing some interest to the estate which is a positive that things are moving forward for life in Gotham. Take care of yourself and keep well._

_Love,_

_Bruce._

I stared at Bruce's letter and my eyes moved slowly to the large manila envelope. My heart beating loudly I took it into my hands looking around as I did so and seeing that no one was watching me. I held my belongings in my hands and sprinted from the Great Hall abandoning my toast and a ruffled looking Scarecrow to my first class, History of Magic. I stormed into the class room and found my seat in a blind rush placing the envelope in the centre of the table keeping everything else in my school bag. As the bell rang shrilly indicating the beginning of the lesson I lifted the seal of the package with students strolling into the room in an extremely bored manner with the ghost teacher, professor Binns, floating through the black board. I did not take any notice to the people who had sat around me nor to the beginning of the lesson which was rather uncharacteristic of me, but I did not care, I could find out what the lesson was about later and do a little extra homework. I pushed my hand into the envelope and gently slipped out the heavily stapled together pack of pages. I looked through them with much trepidation until I found the page with a stamp obnoxiously emblazoned across the page and a few signatures littered across it, but the one that caught my attention most was a neat scrawl, my new and legal father's. I was so immersed in the little scrawl that Hermione Granger had to tap my shoulder, a jump was customary, to indicate that a small student had a message for me.

"Professor Dumbledore would like to see Emily Dent in his office right now please, professor Binns," this timid youth stuttered out and I frowned gathering my belongings following him out of the class room a few unnoticed whispers trailing after me.

The youth had handed me a scroll and I thanked him telling him that I did not need to be shown to his office because I already knew where it was thus sending him off. Deciding not to dawdle I made it to professor Dumbledore's office in record time reading the password off the scroll which had been delivered to me and I knocked on his office door silencing the chatter from within. The door was quickly opened by brusque looking Percy Weasley (!?) and I took in who was present in the room; professor Dumbledore who was sitting and smiling in a grandfatherly manner and Cornelius Fudge who looked positively put out. I stood in the entrance looking like a lost idiot while frowning and rubbing at my wrist trying to discern what everyone was doing there and how it concerned me.

"Good morning Emily, come take a seat and could you close the door behind you?" professor Dumbledore addressed me gently and I moved in automatic doing what I was told. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Uh, fine thank you, I am not in trouble am I?" I asked thinking back to my early morning adventures in the corridors thinking that surely I wouldn't need such harsh disciplinary action.

"Oh no, not at all," professor Dumbledore laughed slightly and continued. "What does have us concerned, however, is a letter sent to the Ministry sometime this weekend pertaining to a name change and a rather interesting case of adoption and we want to find out the how and why such a thing was necessitated."

I shifted uncomfortably clearing my throat several times and glancing around at the suddenly leering faces of the occupants of the room. My breath had picked up and my eyes had taken on a wide and terrified feeling as images of burning buildings and dying people flashed across them and the hot a laboured breath in my ears laughing at me.

"Would you like a sherbet lemon?" professor Dumbledore offered picking up on my distress in my eyes and I declined silently. "Emily, you have to tell us what happened."

"You don't seem to follow the muggle news a lot, do you?" I finally spoke my lungs starting to close in on me.

"What does this have to do with the muggle news?" Cornelius Fudge asked and I saw confusion littered in everyone's faces.

"Quite a great deal actually; their press likes to document my family's affairs like it is everybody else's business, in fact this makes it even harder to explain everything." I leant back in my seat and started frowning.

"Your family is in the muggle press's eyes?" Cornelius Fudge went at me and was silenced by professor Dumbledore's sharp and meaningful look.

"Yeah, well; my biological father and my adoptive father at least as they are very important muggles, my witch mother on the other hand died when I was very young and it was left undocumented," I half heartedly began.

"What happened to your biological father?" professor Dumbledore had asked and pain flashed through my eyes.

"He was murdered," a slight gasp filled the room and professor Dumbledore looked as if he was on to something only to have his face fall when I ploughed on after a breath of courage and a touch of the coin. "He was elected to a higher office before last term ended and his job has a high assassination rate so some crazy criminal," I had spat that part out like it was venom, "decided that he was going to have a go at my city's public servants and it resulted in my father's death all the while my father was trying to fight for something good, all the while he was trying to clean up the city to make it safer, all the while he was trying to make the world a better place."

As I had spoken those last few words my emotion had poured out and my hatred for _him_ had built tenfold while tears had flowed from my eyes as my father's desperate voice and Rachel's vain optimism ran through my head the final explosion making me wince openly. I did not mention my abduction though, because I did not think I could bear it, another set of eyes asking if I wasn't crazy from all of _his_ abuse. I breathed in sharply wiping my face dry as I looked into the sympathetic eyes of professor Dumbledore the room's occupants shifting around rather uncomfortably.

"That's terrible, have you told anyone?" professor Dumbledore asked in a sombre voice.

"With an entire country and a half knowing and staring at me like lost lambs, I don't think I could have bared it in the Wizarding world to have people look at me like a pity project." I had said this in a dead voice and professor Dumbledore had seemed to understand something in the way my eyes were completely desperate.

"And what happened to the criminal?" he had asked softly and everyone leaned in curious about my answer.

"He was apprehended by the national police and is being held in the local Asylum, as it is the most secure place, until the trial ends and depending on the outcome he will either be sent to jail or back to the Asylum," I spoke clearly trying my best to ward off the pungent odour of a breath which taunted and laughed at me and the images of smeared grease paint.

"Did you ever see him?" Cornelius Fudge asked in fascination and professor Dumbledore looked at him with an admonishing expression.

"Yeah; he, uh, liked to publicise himself a lot," _his_ laughter was crossing from within my mind to my ears and I rubbed at them in an attempt, however futile it was, to rid myself of that bone chilling sound.

A loud and melodic song came from the corner of the room causing us all to look up at what I recognised was a phoenix sitting proudly on a perch chirping away and I was thankful for its distraction because the direction the conversation had taken was making me rather uncomfortable and triggering a whole wave of psychosis. Professor Dumbledore seemed to have noticed my extreme discomfort and cleared his throat a tad too loudly to be natural and spoke.

"Well, if that is all there is to the story I see no reason to have any major alarm," he began. "As long as you are doing fine and coping with this then all should be in order."

"Yes sir," his gaze had held mine in a meaningful manner and I needed to placate him.

"As for the name change and logistics-"

"Would it be fine if it wasn't so highly publicised? My official documentation will of course change and things pertaining to that matter, but I would prefer for my friends to find out on my own steam." I quickly said in a small and anxious manner and the professor's expression softened.

"Yes, of course, I understand fully, but your teachers will have to be notified barring all the unpleasant details," he explained gently and I earnestly nodded my head indicating that I understood completely. "Very well, then I would suggest you run along to your next lesson while we deal with the paper work here and have a pleasant day."

"Thank you sir," I rose from my seat and made for the door. "And you too."

I left the office feeling somewhat bewildered and affronted with an overwhelming sense of triggered grief streaming through all brought about by stuffy wizards who really shouldn't need to know the intimate details of my life. I frowned, making my way to Potions, at the memory of Cornelius Fudge's enthusiastic persistence in questioning me about the finer points of the topic and found that I didn't much like him. It seemed that I had arrived to class early so I slid down the wall opposite the door and leant against it taking out the papers to stare at them in an overly transfixed manner while I waited for the bell to ring. Ring it did eventually and I picked myself off the ground entering the empty class room with an air of edgy anticipation. Professor Snape eyed me strangely as the rest of the class followed me in shortly afterwards and I shook my head slightly as I packed my adoption papers away and retrieved what was necessary for the lesson concentrating on the weight of the coin on my chest. While he handed out our assignments from the other week and rambled on about the new scoring system I scribbled a note to Hermione Granger asking about what I had missed in History of Magic as I knew she would be the most clued in. As I stood to collect required ingredients for the day's task I dropped it in front of her and I collected her reply on my way back to my table. I shoved it in my school bag and after a quick glance at and pack away of my assignment I began working meticulously on my task throwing my attention into it and discarding all emotion. Once the lesson had ended, I handed my Strengthening Solution in to the teacher and split from the pack of students heading for lunch and I made a beeline to the Library to have all my assignments from the first two lessons completed and catch myself up on History of Magic.

The month after that had carried on like clockwork after Monday and I had found much to my chagrin that the woman dressed in pink was the new High Inquisitor only through her inspections of a few classes I had which meant that I needed to find out her name fast at some point. My early morning wanderings were still on the continuation and the nightmares still plagued my sleeping moments, but I was glad for the fact that the psychosis was slowly fading and soon I was able to concentrate fully on my studies. I had written my letter to Bruce on Friday filling him in on the mundane properties of my life causally mentioning how the official logistics of my name change had come about. The following Monday he had replied with a small amount of concern over whether or not it had triggered me in any way and I had appreciated his concern although, I had told him not to worry about it in my reply and that it was a minor and very amusing incident. Our exchange of letters was a very casual and light hearted affair, I had kept him up to date with my studies and how I was fairing and he had kept me up to date on events in Gotham and how his business and his emotions were fairing. I was very sure he lying to me about how he was feeling completely as I was doing, but I was fine with that as I knew that too much prodding and pushing at people's buttons usually had the adverse effect of what was desired. While my school work was picking up a large steam and my teachers had seemed un-phased by the name change and pleased that my marks were continuing to climb; I had noticed that I was becoming extremely withdrawn from people and the only time I had interacted with any one was when I had run into them or answering a question. I wasn't too sure if it was a good thing or not and, indeed, time could only tell.


	5. Chapter 5

_**The Joker condemned rotting in Arkham Asylum!**_

The article's headline and entire cover page screamed at me as I stared at it numbly after receiving it from Bruce in his Monday mail. October had arrived and with it the news, the mood defining news. The main article was a bit of a blabber on _his_ atrocities, the court proceedings and how the case was a very hard one to crack considering the anonymity of everything that had transpired. What mattered to me most though was the fact that _he_ was locked away and _his_ face was plastered across the front page sending a gut wrenching feeling of dread through me. My breath shuddered through me and I shook my head refolding the article deciding that it was a bit too soon to be looking at an image of _him_ and that it would be best if I didn't take this attachment out any time soon. I shakily rose from my seat and left for class walking through the Great Hall slowly and trying to not make any eye contact which would indubitably trigger an outbreak. I ploughed through my first two classes only focussing on what was taught and what was assigned succeeding in keeping the psychosis at bay. At lunch I had made my customary way to the Library only to be met by Luna at the entrance which surprised me because she enjoyed the slight hustle that was lunch time.

"Do you have a moment of spare time?" she asked following me to my usual table.

"Yeah, what's going on?" I had asked as we both sat down leaving my school bag beside me on the ground.

"I think I should be asking you the same question," she huffed slightly. "What happened? You get back from the summer holidays acting all crazy, throwing yourself into school work too much, skipping meals, have you seen how much weight you have lost? What happened?"

I should have seen a confrontation like this happening sooner, my behaviour wasn't exactly like it was a few months ago; old Emily would have spent her spare time with her friends and enjoying life, new Emily was a wreck who couldn't even function like a normal person. A bit of the truth was now needed.

"If I tell you this, will you promise that you will not tell anyone?" I looked into her curious eyes.

"Okay," she nodded.

"Good heavens! This is such a long and terrible story I don't even know where to start, okay let me have a go," I took in a deep breath searching for where to begin. "Well, as I said, my father got his promotion and in that certain profession those who hold it are specifically targeted by bad people who kill, so shortly after I had gotten home from Hogwarts this one bad guy who was really terrible had decided that summer was the perfect time for my father to be put in the danger spot light and a lot of things happened eventually resulting in his death. So much happened and I was adopted, that's who I keep on writing to and receiving things from, and my father's death was such a sad thing for me. I have been isolating, if you will, because I decided that it was better to do that instead of curling up in a ball and dying on the world and I am so sorry to have neglected you, I am sure you have been rather lonely, I just didn't want to be sad anymore."

"That is so horrible! Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Luna exclaimed her eyes all doe like in their sincerity.

"I didn't tell anyone because seeing as it happened only a few weeks prior to coming back to Hogwarts and I was having a few difficulties coming to terms with it," my voice was dry as was the lift of my lips.

"Oh, I am so sorry," she gushed, her voice laced with the pity I didn't want in the beginning and I was glad that I had resolved never to mention the abduction. "And here everyone thought that He Who Must Not Be Named had done something to you during the holidays or that you were taking his return badly."

"They thought that?" I laughed slightly. "Oh no, I am nervous about his return, yes, but the grief I am going through kind of took first place in my mind that not even his scary presence can make me tremble greater."

"So you really believe Harry Potter?" she asked after a small laugh of her own.

"Yes, of course I believe him, look at everything else he was right about, sure having no exciting story to accompany his claim makes it rather boring, but there is one thing Harry Potter isn't and that is a conniving liar." I shifted forward into the conversation as did she.

"Aren't you a little scared? Don't you want to know how to protect yourself against his followers?" she asked with a small frown.

"Yeah, but the new Defence teacher isn't doing a great job at it so I guess we're doomed if he decides to show up," I said lightly.

"Well, I heard that Harry and his friends are having a meeting at The Hog's Head about protecting ourselves against him and that Harry was going to be teaching us how," her face lit up slightly.

"That makes plausible sense seeing as Harry has got the most experience in dealing with him and it would be most advantageous for us all to have a few skills handy when the time calls for it," I leant back in my seat a contemplative expression on my face. "We should go."

"Are you in, for real?" excitement flared up in Luna's face and I nodded with a smile. "That's brilliant, but Hermione Granger told me that no one un-trustworthy is allowed to know."

"Who am I going to tell?" I laughed. "Social hermit who has grieving problems remember? I doubt anyone would like to touch me with a barge pole."

Luna smiled with a small amount of that sorry look in her eyes which I hoped she would soon drop. "Okay, are you fine though, because I don't think you have been getting enough sleeping in either?"

"Yeah, I am doing much better, but you must promise that you aren't going to tell anyone I don't want to have people treating me any different," my eyes locked with hers as I leant forward.

"I promise," she assured me and I breathed easily.

We sat working on home work as there was only a small amount of time of lunch left and when the bell rang we rose from our seats walking to the exit of the Library for our lessons. We split up and headed to our separate class rooms me arriving to Ancient Runes a little later than I ordinarily would have, but still peacefully early. I made a deliberate attempt to get to supper after Defence and walked slowly and painfully down the aisle to where Luna was sitting and tried not to flinch too obviously when somebody, most likely a brash first year, accidentally blew something up. I sat next to Luna and let the smells of food wash over me and turned my body towards her when a few people looked at me strangely whispering a few things amongst each other.

"Hello, you should probably eat something because you didn't get to this morning when you rushed out after receiving your mail," she said gently.

"Nah, I'm fine," my response was automatic and she gave me a sideways glance. "Honestly, I'm used to a No Eat Monday, they happen all the time."

"What happens that they end up being like that? You always receive your mail and rush off for your owl to eat your toast," ah, so people had noticed my rushing offs every Monday.

"Well, I am always so absorbed in my mail that it tends to distract me," I said honestly for the first time. "Besides this morning was a bit of good news so I was far too preoccupied to do anything but be absorbed by it."

"What was it?" she inquired.

"They sentenced the bad guy that I told you about this afternoon," I said in a low voice so that no one could hear.

"That sounds like good news, what did they sentence him to?" she replied in an equally low voice.

"The bad guy was sent to a place where they don't let people go, he is stuck there forever and hopefully unable to break out." I glanced around a bit and frowned at a few people who were trying to eaves drop on our conversation sending their heads away to their own conversations.

"That sounds brilliant, bad people shouldn't be allowed to hurt others," her sincerity was touching.

"Yeah, um, I think someone's about to blow up another goblet so I will meet you in the common room to do home work, right?" I said not feeling up for the next explosion that I saw was going to be brought about by some foolish wand waving.

"Okay, don't disappear on me before I come up," she warned as I got up and laughed telling her that all would be in order.

I left the Great Hall and turned at the door when I felt a pair of eyes trained on me seeing professor Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes they seemed to say that he knew something was going on so I frowned and skittered away in a slightly paranoid haze. I arrived to a peaceful and empty common room and relaxed into a sofa subconsciously taking out the article and reread it my face scrunching whenever my father or I was mentioned. Compared to the journalists of the Daily Prophet, Gotham's were very thorough and their honesty was stark almost too much with their tendency to over indulge the readers with information. I enjoyed that the journalistic integrity of Gotham was followed to the tee, but they had gotten to me in that last month of summer with all the interviews and following me around like parasites to an open wound. I deliberately did not look at _his_ picture when I packed the article away and took out my school work to be done because I did not want a repeat of that morning's terror. Luna had arrived shortly after and we worked together until it was time for bed when we packed away our stuff and said our good night's. As per usual I only got about four hours of sleep, but I did not much care for it acknowledging that when I got back to Gotham I would need to talk to the doctor who dealt with me.

My routine carried on as it always had the only slight altercation was sitting with Luna for a longer amount of time at breakfast and soon it was time for the meeting at The Hog's Head with Harry and his friends. I was anxious about it because there would be a fair amount of people present well, more than I was used to anyway, but the two things that kept me placated and calm were that The Hog's Head rarely saw any visitors and Luna would be with me. We had arrived early only right after Harry and his friends had and slipped in quietly. Luna had made gentle small talk with them while I sat in the corner glancing around nervously laughing silently to myself when I realised that _he_ wouldn't be able to jump around a corner and say "boo!" because _he_ was locked up and an ocean away. People eventually started arriving and soon the usually empty bar was full so we all gathered up seats and sat facing Harry and his friends waiting for someone to start speaking as we realised that no one else was coming. Hermione had risen from her seat and introduced the meeting with several small interjections from the crowd which she handled rather well. Harry had then stood up when people had started asking about how Lord Voldemort had returned and told them that we weren't here for a story we were here to agree on protecting ourselves and whoever expected one could sod off. No one did and eventually Harry had started vehemently defending his modesty when the compliments aimed at him became too much for him to handle only to be silenced when more came rushing in. When Hermione took out a piece of parchment for everyone to write their names on I froze not knowing which name I should put down, however, when Luna walked up I leant over the parchment and scrawled a neat _Emily Wayne (Dent)_ in a brash act that earned me a raised eye brow from Hermione as she saw me. The meeting had eventually concluded itself and so had my time in the village, I had told Luna that I had a mountainous load of home work waiting for me which had to be done and left to the castle, practically running there. I had arrived in the Ravenclaw Tower in record time and made an internal leap of joy to see that no one was present so I hurriedly set myself up with my school work on my favourite sofa in front of the fire and set myself to task. The sofa was so comfortable and the fire so warming, that thawing feeling so strange and pleasant, that I found myself lost in different trains of thought and soon that all too familiar drifting sensation overwhelmed me.

_I was leaning over the edge of a building peering into a scene which horrified and fascinated me at the same time; a man was pleading for his family's life while another grotesquely burnt man threatened them. I had only made out a few snippets as I was too far away to hear the entire conversation and what I did make out had pulled painfully at my heart. After being unable to take anymore of this dreadful scene I turned around and my heart had given a terrified leap as a shadow faced me._

"_Hello?" I had called out to it trying to get its attention. "Can you please help me?"_

_The shadow rushed at me materialising into a purple trench coat and a garishly made up face and it screamed in a laughing manner, "Boo!" and I started backwards falling off the building into the scene. My entire body tensed expecting impact, but none came as I found myself sitting in a rusted bathtub, its drain clogged up by a chunk of cement. I tried to rise from it only to find that chains were netted across its surface and bolted down to the floor. The tap started with a high pitched whine sending ice cold water splashing down into the tub where suddenly I found myself naked with red fever spots covering my body. The tub was overflowing as my lungs fought for comfort which did not come and soon I found myself coughing up blood as I struggled against the chains to escape this icy prison. A laugh filled with mirth dominated the room and I looked around in terror trying to find its source only to have it jump out at me with my heart jumping out of my mouth and the contents of my stomach following suit running down the side of the tub to pool at the bottom of it._

"_Ooh! Has Emily been a naughty girl?" The monster of my nightmares taunting voice echoed around the room. "I never thought that daddy's little girl would do something as terrible as kill a guy even though daddy hasn't been all that great in that department either."_

"_Stop it," I had moaned in a whisper my exhaustion levels peaking themselves as my head kept on nodding off into the cold water only to have myself splutter right out of them in a coughing fit._

_This monster had laughed at my discomfort and after a while when it had gotten bored pulled my head up by the roots of my hair to push its ugly face into mine as I whimpered in pain._

"_Oh, but you are so much fun to watch, as. You...Dance around. My words, never wanting to disappoint...to protect those who would have discarded you at the drop of a hat," the monsters foul breath washed over me and it took everything in my power not to retch._

"_Please," I begged one last time before I faded off and the scene changed._

_I was climbing out of a well, my fingers bleeding as my nails were slowly peeled off by my clawing at the rocky side in a futile attempt to pull myself out, my arms shook each time I lifted myself up a few inches in exhaustion and my knees were bleeding after the amount of time they had spent being scuffed against the jagging rocks. I had looked up to the sun and what appeared to be beautifully peaceful trees which rejuvenated my dying attempt and with a last haul I pulled myself out only to find that was sitting by an open manhole where a building was just exploding in the dark. My eyes took in all the flames as fire trucks and police converged on the scene leaving me no notice taking care of the scene the sounds of screaming overwhelming my senses. A crunch of gravel averted my eyes and the painted monster was crouching over me observing the scene with a manic glint in its eyes. My heart was hammering painfully in my chest as it pulled me up and turned me away walking down an alley with its arm wrapped around my shoulders, it kept my head looking forward clamped to the crook of its arm._

"_You know, I was going to give you back, I just wanted to give Gotham a present first, remember?" it said softly as we walked away into the darkness._

My eyes had opened slowly and with a small gasp I sat up checking the time seeing that the rest of the castle would be at supper. I rose out of my seat and taking my stuff with me I exited the common room subconsciously making my way to the Astronomy Tower not paying much attention to my surroundings. I arrived to the open fresh air which bit at my skin as I moved to the railing to peer down into the incredible deepness that would be impending doom and I lazily considered how long a fall like that would take. I moved to sit against the railing and took out my school work only to put it back again once I realised that I had nothing to work on as everything was complete and up to date. I had taken out my wand and trailed it around in my fingers as sparks were emitted from it, I repeated this staring at the sparks mesmerised until the sun had long gone down. I sighed in a sad revere thinking what good was a witch who couldn't protect her family when they needed her most; I was such a sad excuse of a human being that I hid behind the rules when they certainly wouldn't matter most and selectively chose to spend entire nights willing away time in some out of bounds area of the castle. I stayed staring at the stars until the bright of dawn had arrived and I rose to freshen up with a shower in the Ravenclaw Tower.

I arrived in the Great Hall to shove a few bites of toast down my throat sitting down next to Luna who was dreamily reading an article from her father's magazine a few parts eliciting an emotive response. I glumly slumped and took to observing the comings and goings of the morning people who were blissfully untouched by the horrors of life. I wiped my face clean of all emotion as I looked to the staff table seeing that they were still waking from their sleeps and my lips lifted as I considered that I hadn't received any sleep since that nightmare. I watched as professor Dumbledore having finished breakfast rose from his seat and left the Great Hall, in a moment of impulse I followed suit and rushed to catch up with him.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir!" I called to him as he made his way up the main stair case and he turned with his eyes twinkling slightly.

"Ah, Miss Dent is there anything I could help you with on your Sunday morning?" he asked with a smile.

"Oh no, nothing really, I just thought that I should tell you about the criminal who brought about my father's death," this was spoken in a low voice.

"Yes, has his trial been concluded?" he asked with a small bit of concern lacing his voice.

"Yes, um, _he_ was sentenced to an Asylum which you should know means that _he_ won't ever be released because the state is rather reticent to let people who are pronounced insane walk around on the streets." I said this in a rush.

"Well that is good then, have you told any of your friends yet?" he inquired.

"Yes, my friend Luna Lovegood," I answered.

"Both of those pieces of news sounds excellent, now all there is to do is to move forward with life and study hard, although I heard from all of your teachers that you are performing very well so I suppose all there is to it is to continue with the excellent work," he beamed and I smiled back.

"Yeah, I thought that instead of dwelling on the topic I should throw myself into learning and preparing myself as much as I can," I told him rather honestly.

"That's good then," he said and checked his watch. "I am sorry, but I have a meeting to attend to shortly so enjoy your Sunday and study hard."

"Oh, okay, you enjoy your Sunday as well, sir," I called to his retreating back and turned only to run into Harry Potter's suspicious face.

"What were you talking to Dumbledore about?" he asked and my eyes did a double take around the general vicinity.

"Hello to you too," I said brightly. "I was talking to him about something personal going on."

"Really?" he asked again.

"Yeah, it's not like I have anything else to discuss with him," I said and I saw over his shoulder that his friends were running up the stairs to catch up with him.

"Are you sure?" his eyes narrowed and I felt the beginning of an inquisition about to happen.

"Yes, I am sure, now if you don't mind I have some aimless wanderings to do thank you very much, I look forward to our first meeting." I huffed and turned away just as his friends had caught up with him.

The rest of the month had passed rather smoothly; my psychosis was completely manageable and the nightmares had morphed into dreams where the painted monster and I would just be walking down that never ending dark alley sometimes exchanging words and sometimes not. My letters to Bruce showed improvement and we were soon on learning about each other basis exchanging casual bits of information about ourselves. My appetite had improved in that I was eating two pieces of toast at breakfast times and an apple at lunch when I found that I was at a loss for school work. The Educational Decree Number Twenty-four had put a damper on the school as it meant reforming all the clubs, but it did not hinder our new Defence class as it was more of a secret thing than an in the open club. We had eventually gotten round to obtaining a venue and Hermione had devised a clever way to communicate with us with a coin which made me smile at the thought that I had one attached to my neck. We had all agreed on a name for ourselves which was Dumbledore's Army and I had laughed slightly to myself as I pictured a look of horror on nosy Cornelius Fudge's face sharing this with Luna who had also appreciated the humour in this. Our first session ever had consisted with us learning the Disarming spell, Expelliarmus, which Harry had used to save his life back in June it had soon come out. That session had me rather on edge with a few bangs here and there, but I swallowed my fear and concentrated through the banging which helped in perfecting my ability. My school work had not taken a damper and soared as it always did with most of my teachers looking at me with a keen sense of approval and pride, I knew from this that professor Dumbledore had probably mentioned more than a legal name change. I felt a sense of ease soon and felt that finally things were setting them into place like a puzzle which only had a few pieces to go before it was complete.


	6. Chapter 6

October had waved its warm farewells as November arrived with its cold chill and a crack down on academics which I did not complain about, the more to learn the more merrier I was to be. I had adjusted to the new routine with the Dumbledore's Army meetings which helped me practically learn the Defence syllabus and focus myself better with regards to not becoming a complete wimp whenever a bang went off anywhere near. The first Quidditch match had also come and while I did not go in my obsessive desire to study and perfect assignments news had reached my ears about how Harry Potter and George Weasley had gotten into a fight with Draco Malfoy who had insulted them; the fact that Harry and George with his twin Fred had been banned from Quidditch entirely had sent me into an outrage at the woman dressed in pink and I vowed never to find out her name in a stupidly childish fit. Professor Hagrid had come back from his two month hiatus with a very interesting lesson indeed.

We had all gathered outside professor Hagrid's hut in the freezing snow all in our warmest wear rubbing at our bodies in an attempt to stay at a healthy body temperature. Our teacher had appeared sporting a few questionable injuries to the face, but I knew better than to ask because questions tended to make one feel uncomfortable. He carried the carcass of a cow on his shoulder and I shifted around nervously knowing that whatever we were studying today was bound to be carnivorous. He had led us into the Forbidden Forest after telling the Malfoy git to mind his own business and we had walked for about ten minutes before coming into a dark clearing. He had set the carcass in the middle of it and after assuring us that he hadn't lost his marbles started shrieking into the sky clearly calling some creature which he had assured us were the only tame ones in Britain. After a while the creatures had materialised and in a moment of blind excitement realising that we were studying the Thestrals I clung to Harry's arm telling him to look where they had landed. When I had come into my second year and was confronted by these creatures my curiosity was instantly roused and I had come to the Care of Magical Creatures professor of the time and asked him all about them, he had of course given me a strange look, but told me nonetheless. Harry's friends had looked at me weirdly as well as professor Hagrid, but I gave it no mind as I told Harry that he could be proven sane by this lesson. The dreaded woman dressed in pink had arrived after professor Hagrid had asked who could see Thestrals, Neville and another boy in Slytherin could as well, and had started explaining the lesson. The horrible woman had made fun of professor Hagrid and had interrupted his lesson as she walked around asking biased questions and twisting poor Neville's answers around to look unfavourable. I was glad she had skipped out on me because I was sure to give her a piece of my mind which wouldn't go down all too favourably for anyone and as the lesson ended I gave the Thestral closest to me a parting pat on the head. Herbology had treated us all fairly to a gentle relaxing of the anger that the woman dressed in pink had given us and I found that the warmth helped sooth my muscles from being out in the cold for so long. My day had continued uninterrupted like clockwork and it was with the usual dreading grace that I fell back into bed to have about four hours worth of turbulent and disturbing dreams.

December had barged it snowy way in and with it an attachment from Bruce which he urged that I take to professor Dumbledore as soon as possible so instead of finishing my breakfast as usual I had rushed off to find my head of house to ask him the current password to the headmaster's office. He had relented after I told him that I had something urgent for the headmaster which wasn't entirely a lie and I reported obediently to my first two lessons to wait for lunch time. By the end of the second lesson I was jumping all over the place with my extreme concentration and my sense of urgency that professor Snape had told me to sit down and not move lest I wanted an accident so I sat having to peer and reach into my cauldron to get my work done with his eye keenly trained on me. When the bell sounded around the castle I bottled my assignment and handed it to a weary and surprised looking professor Snape and sprinted up to the headmaster's office gasping out the password to the stone statues which guarded it and they leapt out of my barraging way. I traipsed up the stairs and rapped smartly on the door entering as was instructed.

"Emily, what a surprise, is anything the matter?" professor Dumbledore inquired and I laughed at my appearance which may have seemed rather out of breath.

"Nothing is the matter, but I have a letter that my guardian told me that I had to get to you as soon as possible," I said and presented him with the attachment which was in a large envelope of its own.

He took it and opened it with his eye brows raised looking to me before reading the first letter with Bruce's signature stationery stamped across it then referring to the second which strangely had my doctor's signature dominating the page's spotlight, he had a rather obnoxiously flamboyant signature which grabbed one's attention right away. Professor Dumbledore frowned several times rereading the letter and looking back to the one from my doctor.

"It is my understanding that you have an urgent doctor's appointment next week which cannot be missed under any circumstances," he had started and it hit me, of course I would need to go sometime soon as in retrospect I realised that I only had enough meds to last me until early next week.

"Yes," I began slowly. "The doctor does run a tight international schedule which he books out months before the appointment."

"I see this, yes," he raised my doctor's sheet. "Your guardian speaks rather highly of him, which brings up the question why did you start seeing this doctor in the first place?"

"Well, ah, the criminal got to me in more ways than one and the, uh, doctors who had checked me over after my father's death thought that it would be healthy for my state of mind if I saw a doctor who could give me something to ease the whole grieving process and to numb any unpleasant memories which had occurred," I explained rather shakily not sure if I wanted to think about the immediate aftermath of _his_ reign of terror.

"Yes, he did explain something about something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that without his guidance you could become a liability to yourself," professor Dumbledore's eyes were filled with something closely discernible as that pity look.

"Yeah, they told me that I was going through something like that," I said trying not to focus on the blasting sound which my memory enjoyed to bring up.

"Very well; seeing as you are the only student who has received such exemplary marks this year due to your dedication to your studies and your ability to easily catch up work I will allow for this," he sighed clearly in his Monday mode. "You leave on Friday, your new guardian is already in London so you can write to him to tell him that I will have a Portkey ready for after supper, you will need to come here to take it, and that it will take you to the Leaky Cauldron."

"Thank you so much sir!" I beamed elatedly at him very much excited about seeing Bruce so soon.

"Oh, it's fine, you do so well in your lessons that I am sure a small break in them would be most advantageous for your health, some of your teachers have commented on your seemingly obsessive nature to the extent of missing social events like Quidditch," he smiled at me and I briefly remembered locking myself away in the Library that entire day forgoing everything in the pursuit to perfect my essays which I had written and rewritten over and over.

"Yeah, I don't really enjoy crowds so I thought that it would be a better thing to spend the day studying and getting my school work on top form, I don't want to fail my O. now do I?" I said rather meekly.

"On your steam I don't see you failing your N.E. ," he chuckled slightly and I relaxed. "Now, you have your next lesson in five minutes so I would run along, I will have your teachers notified and I will see you on Friday at eight sharp."

"Okay, thank you sir, enjoy your day!" I called over my shoulder as I took off to my next lesson.

My next two lessons blurred passed me with the teachers pilling on the home work which I gladly received as opposed to my class mates who groaned as they had been putting off their work whereas I ploughed into the work I received like a knowledge depraved monster. At supper time I ran off to pen an excitement filled response to Bruce and found myself in the Library, I sat down at my usual table and first pulled out my home work completing all the day's work with joy. Second I pulled out my pen and letter pad and set to writing.

_Dear Bruce,_

_I handed in the attachment to my headmaster and he said that I could go on Friday after supper, he will arrange a Portkey which is something that can transport someone very quickly for eight pm so seeing as the destination is a magical place which you haven't been to yet I will catch a cab and meet you at your hotel, the one you own overlooking the Thames River right? You have no idea how excited I am to see you so soon; it feels like it has been forever. I hope that all was well on your flight over to England and that the turbulence from all the unpleasant weather didn't put a damper on your arrival. Until your next response,_

_Love,_

_Emily._

I folded and packed my complete letter into an envelope and packed away everything else that was unnecessary. I proof read my essays due for the next day for the fifth time and satisfied that they were on top performance levels I put them away rising from my seat to find Scarecrow. She was perched on the Astronomy Tower sleeping peacefully despite the rain that was lightly drizzling on her.

"Hey Scare, I have a short journey for you tonight; this is for Bruce who is in London, can you find him?" her hoot of ascend pacified me and I attached the letter to her leg.

I watched her take off and disappear into the darkness letting the drizzle wet me through before I came to my senses and returned to the Ravenclaw Tower to slip in a few hours of fitful sleep. My week had progressed easily from there; Bruce's reply of his hotel being the best place to meet him coming through the next day, my teachers with the exception of the woman dressed in pink had pulled me aside at the end of my lessons to assign me my holiday home work and work which needed to be up to date on and as I had the essays for the term completed I handed those in to my teachers raised eye brows. I had one last Dumbledore's Army lesson before Friday and after that I had approached Harry who was packing our materials of the day away, I helped out as a slight procrastination method.

"Harry," I said silently after there was just him and his two closest friends present.

"Yeah?" he looked at me with a slightly wild expression and my eyes creased with silent laughter.

"Don't stress, I don't want to attack you," I smiled and he relaxed into a frown and so did his friends. "I just wanted to tell you that on Friday I am going to be leaving for the December holidays early because I am going for an appointment to sort out my pills, you know how on the train I had a weird attack? Well I am going to have those sorted out."

"Okay?" he said slowly not fully understanding.

"That means I won't be present for the next few DA meetings," I clarified for him and his expression morphed into understanding.

"Oh, I see, it's okay, the next one was just going to be practising what we have already done and you seem to do rather well so to tell you to practise extra would be stupid," he responded grinning lightly.

"Okay, thank you for your understanding," a major weight felt as if it had been lifted from my shoulders. "I should be going soon I wouldn't want to be caught by Filch's invasive nose."

I smiled to them and waved stepping from the room to drift through the corridors finally to arrive back in the Ravenclaw Tower to catch a few hours of sleep before another round of aimless drifting. Friday had dawned and with it an extra hour of excited insomnia, I had skipped into the Great Hall and sat next to Luna who seemed rather unaffected by the gloom of the cold and was wearing an expression of fascination as she gazed to the enchanted roof. I buttered two pieces of toast and began to bite into them in an excited manner.

"Hello, you seem to be in a pleased mood today," she remarked looking at me with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, today I am leaving to go home," I said in a low voice with a stupidly large smile on my face.

"That's funny, term doesn't end for another two weeks," she said with a frown.

"Yeah, but I have an appointment with my doctor next week and he doesn't move appointments for anything so I have to go or I will need to wait another six months for an opening," I responded and her expression flattened out only to scrunch up again.

"What is a doctor?" she asked and I realised with a small laugh that she didn't know what they were.

"They are muggle healers," I explained and understanding washed over her evident in the way her face softened.

"I suppose that's good then and I am sure you are by now so up to date with your school work that two week wouldn't hurt your marks," she mused more to herself than me because we both knew secretly that I was far too ahead. "Oh, I am sure you must be so excited to go back home and see your new dad!"

"Yeah, I am so excited to see him again," I gushed slightly.

We had exchanged a few words before the bell had rung cutting our conversation off, I left Luna with the promise that I would write to her and tell her how I was doing and wished her a good holiday. My Friday rushed by and soon it was supper time which was when I ran to the Ravenclaw Tower to lock my possessions into my already packed trunk, I shrunk it and slipped it into my pocket doing a double take of the room to check that I had everything I needed. I arrived at professor Dumbledore's office at seven forty-five and knocked on the dark wood with anticipation shooting through my stomach and entered when I was told to. Professor Dumbledore was seated behind his desk which had a grubby hat sitting atop it with a strained smile on his face.

"Good evening Emily, I trust you have all your possessions with you?" he asked at my empty handed appearance.

"Yes sir," I patted at my pocket. "Shrunken trunk." I further explained at his befuddled expression.

"Well then, all is in order so I will wish you a pleasant holiday and that you may come back well prepared for your academics to continue climbing," he continued frowning at the fact that I had shrunk my trunk, but seeming to understand the logic.

"Thank you sir and enjoy your holidays as well," I smiled and took hold of the grubby hat which he had gestured that I take.

I felt a horrible sensation of a hook grappling at my naval before being thrust to the floor of the Leaky Cauldron; I stood and quickly made my way to the lavatories to change into muggle attire before hailing a cab. After I was appropriately attired I pulled out my purse containing my muggle money, a scarf and a pair of sunglasses. I shrunk the contents of my trunk which I would not need for the rest of the holidays and put the other things I would need into my school bag which I had long ago enchanted at school to have a large amount of space on the inside and look as if it would only fit a single book at most on the outside. I exited the Leaky Cauldron while putting the scarf and the sunglasses on and walked a few blocks to a more crowded section of town to catch the attention of a cab. After a few minutes I was successful and gave the driver directions to the hotel the Bruce owned, he grunted in acknowledgment and soon sped off arriving at the hotel in less than an hour which impressed me for London traffic. I tipped the driver as I paid him and he grunted his thanks in surprise before speeding off to find another person to carry around the busy streets of London.

I nervously cast my gaze around the entrance and took the plunge stepping up to the reception asking for Bruce and was promptly attended to by the manager, him showing me up to Bruce's penthouse suit. I stood by the door for a few jittery seconds and knocked on it with a renewed sense of energy that came from me scolding myself for being such a baby. The door had opened and before I got to say anything I was received with a warm hug which I returned and we stood on the threshold for a few seconds savouring each others' presence.

"It has been too long since I have last seen you," Bruce said after releasing me and walking us into the suit.

"It has been, I have missed you so much," I had said setting my school bag down by the table which dominated the room.

"It looks like I am not the only thing you have been missing, name anything you would like to eat and I will have it sent right up here," he said and I blushed my muggle clothes evidently not so great at hiding my weight loss.

"Uh, how about a nice big chocolate cake to celebrate everything we have been absent from each other for?" I said with a happy smile not up for explaining too much just yet.

"Okay, I will call down to reception and order one right away," he said and while he called down I took a cursory glance around the apartment which Bruce stayed in while on trips to London. "Done, now we can catch up, what have you been up to with the exception of advancing well with your school work?"

"I have joined a club at school, I don't think I should tell you too much about it because the people who formed it seemed rather insistent on secrecy when they made us sign our names down so I should suspect there is a bit of magic to do with it," I began as we moved to sit by the gas fireplace. "What basically bought about its inception is there is a teacher from the magical government who doesn't want us learning about this particular branch of magic because for some insane reason they think that the headmaster wants a bunch of school kids to rise against them, hilarious I know, so they wanted to pass their exams and be generally prepared for whatever life threw at them later and formed a club to actually learn this branch of magic. It is a great deal exciting."

Bruce had laughed when I mentioned how the woman dressed in pink didn't want us learning proper Defence and laughed harder at the Ministry's involvement in the school and seemed understanding of how people would want to be properly prepared for life. We had talked into the night and toasted everything great that had happened that term when the cake had come up and I found that I was able to eat it with much gusto, albeit a single slice as my stomach was full after the chocolaty richness. I spoke of the unfairness of Harry and the Weasley twins banning from Quidditch seeing as it was Draco Malfoy who should be punished more severely for constantly throwing insults at everyone and he whole heartedly agreed believing in full justice and retribution. He spoke of how his business had been doing well with new and foreign Investors investing their time and money into Wayne Enterprises and how the city of Gotham was showing a marked improvement with the people's attitude and its crime. I felt, for the first time in a long time, at ease when I went to sleep that evening and instead of having any garish dreams I fell into an easy slumber and was excited to be leaving for Gotham the next day.


	7. Chapter 7

That Saturday had been much of a blur; Bruce and I had woken to the crack of dawn to get ready for and disembark on our private security flight back to Gotham, I had spent the duration of the flight working on home work and once I was finished with it I had resorted to looking idly out of the tiny windows watching the clouds floating below. Once we had landed there was a major bustle of getting through customs without too many people ogling at Bruce's and my appearance, the sunglasses and scarf were our only saving grace granting some anonymity. Alfred had waited for us outside the airport with the Rolls and while our greeting was a happy one we had to hastily make away because the news stations were fast in this town and were already pulling into the lots looking around for us. It was all quite exciting and adrenalin rushing feeling as if we were escaping or running from some sort of Big Brother. Getting back to the Palisades was easy enough as there was no traffic seeing as it was a day where no one from that area would be obligated to go to work thus negating the excess of cars. Arriving at Wayne Manor we had driven into the large parking lot and cutting the engine we had all made our way inside to settle with a cup of tea which was drank in the kitchen enjoying the slightly homely feel of it. After tea I had made my way to my room to unpack and enjoy a nap after such a large amount of jet lag from passing through several time zones in quick succession. Supper time was a short interjection from my nap which was sleepily consumed only to continue with sleeping after my meds surprisingly without any dreams which I attributed to the jet lag. Sunday was spent in a gentle fashion rising early to eat a scant breakfast and sitting in the living room with my studies in front of me with a fire running to keep the room warm only venturing out at meal times and to finally go to bed.

Monday had arrived and I had went with Bruce to Wayne Enterprises to learn what his business was about and to stretch my cramping legs; we had risen early and left in one of his speeding Lamborghinis so that we would be more than on time to his eight thirty meeting. While he was busy with that I had asked Lucius Fox if I could look around the R and D department just to pass my time and explore a little, he had accepted my request with a warning not to play with anything dangerous. Walking in the underground basement of the building was an experience which filled me with awe and amazement looking at all the equipment which went under the excuse of army rejects and it was while sifting through the actual army rejects that I found it; my new toy. It was a smooth, gleaming semi-automatic handgun which was a medium size and had tarnished silver looking metal build; it lay on its side alone with a black case next to it, clearly its ammunition. I took the sheet which appeared to belong to it and read its report; it was designed with a failsafe mechanism and fired explosive ammunition while it could also accept ordinary rounds, the reason for its rejection: it did not look intimidating enough. That's why it was perfect in my mind anyway and as I shoved the ammunition and the gun with the sheet containing the instruction manual into my never ending bag I did not consider this a theft more of an indefinite lending. As I lazily picked my way back to the elevator I pocketed a few ordinary rounds which would help with practising my eye without wasting precious explosive rounds. Bruce's meetings had ended well so afterwards we took a relaxing drive along the high way up to the next small town where we had a warm lunch to race back to the Palisades after he had received a strange call which I thought nothing of. On our return to Wayne Manor we had gone our respective ways, Bruce to the living room to talk to Alfred in hurried whispers with the muted sounds of the television floating through the air and me to my room to pick up my books. This time they surprisingly weren't on school more on leisure muggle science learning and I ghosted to the kitchen to pick up a glass of water to bring to the living room to enjoy the heat of the fire as I read.

Bruce and Alfred jumped as I appeared in the door way and I smiled with laughter creasing at my eyes at their expression of abject horror as Bruce quickly shut the television off which was tuned to the news with a reporter looking sombre as usual.

"What's going on? I don't have anything funny on my face do I?" I faked an expression of horror and laughed afterwards. "Seriously, you guys look like you have a case of PTSD yourselves. Relax, you want to read a few of my magical history books and have a laugh at their barbaric ways again?"

"Alfred that sounds like a wonderful idea maybe you should do that with Emily while I go check something!" Bruce said quickly with a slight pitch to his voice and I thought that he was probably the one who needed a laugh instead.

"Yes; Emily will you fetch it for me while I go make some tea?" Alfred had received a meaningful look from Bruce and I frowned.

"Sure," I said slowly and placed my books and water down exiting the room noting that Bruce was pocketing the remote control to the television.

When I had returned to the empty living room the fire was blazing in the hearth and the cable to the television was missing which I found rather odd, but I shrugged this off knowing that nothing terribly wrong could have transpired. Alfred had returned with tea and muttered something about checking the mail before walking out leaving me to read to the crackling of the fire for about an hour before coming back telling me that supper was ready in the dining room. It was a strange experience with Bruce glancing at the windows every few seconds and jumping when a tree's branch tapped against a window. His dinner was interrupted by a phone call which he took outside the room while I continued to pick at my food. He came back into the room and told me sternly that as I had a medical check up the next day I was not to venture outside so as to not catch my cold, I told him laughingly that I wasn't an outside person and that my reading took preference over everything else which seemed to relax him. After my half eaten supper I had secluded myself in the warm living room to read up on my muggle science enjoying all the rational thinking and logic after spending my time throwing myself into such fantastical notions of magic. I had noticed Bruce's marked absence from the Manor that evening which had me worried that maybe he had picked up Batman's cowl again. I remembered him telling me about his alter ego after accidentally stumbling on his lair soon after arriving at the Manor and how he seemed so desperately sad telling me about everything that had transpired with _him_ and my father telling me that no one must know or everything would be undone. It was rather heart wrenching discovering how the whole scenario had played out and how _his_ psychological underplay had destroyed the city and its morale. Alfred had made hourly checks on me making sure that I had everything I needed going so far as to bring a pitcher of water to the living room after I had expressed my desire to retrieve a refill. After finishing the first quarter of books I had on me I retired to my room at midnight to have a few fitful hours of sleep.

I had woken early on Tuesday morning and readied myself for the day taking my second quarter of books to the living room and wafting into the dining room to have a few bites of toast before returning to read more to pass the time until my medical examination. Bruce seemed rather tired that day and planned the day out that we would leave for the hospital right after lunch cutting the time rather close when we arrived for the examination. The doctor looked sympathetically at me until a sharp look cut his next statement off and seemed to cut out the sympathy act. The examination was quick and Bruce hurried us out of the hospital and sped out of the central business district as fast as the car would allow for while I read through the results sheets seeing that I was in better health and that my only problems seemed to be a bad chest which would be the result of the pneumonia that _he_ had given me. The rest of my day was spent reading the third quarter of the muggle science books with the short interval of supper time and noting that the television cable had yet to return with the remote and that Bruce was also absent which tugged at my chest painfully. Alfred had taken up the previous evening's hourly check ins bringing me whatever I needed which wasn't much considering that I only needed water. I had concluded the third quarter at midnight as per the usual and fell into a troubled sleep worrying over Bruce's safety and hoping that nothing terribly bad had happened to necessitate his night time outing.

Wednesday had dawned and with it another strange day of waking early to shove a few bites of toast into my throat with a haggard looking Bruce and finishing the final quarter of the muggle science books. Lunch was sifted around on my plate as I nervously chatted to Bruce about the major doctor's appointment that was due that day, he responded good heartedly saying that there was nothing to be overly nervous about and that the doctor simply wanted to see if the medication I was placed on was working properly. We had left shortly after lunch speeding to the centre of town to the hospital where the doctor had set up a temporary office on his Gotham rounds. Bruce was correct in telling me that the doctor wasn't about to dive into my secrets, he was merely questioning me on how the meds were affecting my body and if my psychosis was growing or not and, pleased, he wrote out another six months of my normal dosage with a longer acting tranquillizer which didn't send me to sleep. The nightmares, he told me, were a normal part of what I was going through and if they persisted by the time I next saw him he would put me onto something which took away the dreams, he had explained that scientists were working on a drug which skipped past the REM sleep phase and made the taker feel more rested by the time they woke up. Walking out of the doctor's office with the scripts in my hands I realised that I needed to use the lavatories so I handed them to Bruce who was waiting in reception with a few others who ogled at me with wide eyes telling him that I would be back in a few seconds. I relieved myself hearing the sounds of people walking in and out of the room with a final bang and a loud click which I attributed to the stall besides mine. I had washed my hands looking back at my reflection in the mirror which looked so much like my father's; it was probably the most bizarre experience for the people of Gotham to see a miniature version of Harvey Dent, their "White Knight", running around with child like business of her own. I dried my hands on my shirt knowing full well the sanitation, or lack of, of the hot air drier machines and turned to the door pulling on it only to find it resisting my pull. I tried again to pull it open with more force except it didn't budge; I pushed and found myself banging the stationary door in frustration only to be stilled by a bone chilling laugh, the laugh that only my nightmares were able to perfectly replicate. I turned with my heart hammering painfully away in my chest as a cubicle door banged open and a figure stepped playing with something that glinted in the fluorescent lights above.

"Well hello, darling; it has been some time and would you look at yourself, you have lost a fair amount of weight. You haven't been fantasising about me at night have you?" The purple clad painted monster laughed at my visage of terror as he stood languidly in front of me leering at my discomfort. "What, no joyful reunion, no running into my arms proclaiming your undying love for me, I'm a tad bit insulted."

"Y...You...You were supposed to be..." My whisper trailed off as The Joker approached me twirling around what soon became apparent as a syringe and a needle filled with a clear liquid.

"Oh, locked up, rotting in a nuthouse, getting cured, learning my just lesson," he cackled as he continued to corner me against the door walking slowly forward until his presence filled my space and in a quick act jabbed the needle into my neck the burning sensation of chemicals filling my senses my body paralysed in fear. "Don't worry doll, this won't knock you out, it's just a bit of adrenaline I picked up from the ER yesterday while I was waiting for your no show at the hospital, I can't have you passing out on me now."

I whimpered as I slid to the floor having no control over my actions my heart rate beginning to pick up with the extra adrenaline which I knew from the muggle science books would only intensify the experience. The monster laughed at my distress and hoisted my struggling form which became muted and carried me to the centre of the room whacking me painfully down on the floor. He straddled me and fiddled around in his purple trench coat clearly looking for something while I tried to lift my arms which now felt like lead.

"Found it!" he yelled pulling out a switchblade with a purple handle and noticed my struggle with my limbs which weren't responding. "Oh, I forgot to mention, I laced the adrenaline with a paralysing agent, but don't worry it wears off in about twelve hours, or more, something like that, but now we have the main show to attend to!"

I whimpered as he leant down against me pressing his hands and weight down hard onto my shoulders invading my space with his face sitting right in front of mine forcing my darting eyes to look into his dark ones and his putrid breath sickening me and making me glad that I hadn't eaten much that day.

"Why..." I whispered painfully and his breath laughed into my face as he bounced around in excitement.

"Hah! "Why" and I thought that you were cleverer than that being in a prestigious boarding school in England and all. Don't you remember me telling you before I left that I still had a final gift to give to Gotham, something to remind them about me by?" The switchblade clicked and the blade was drawn and my heart thudded as I felt the cold of it pressed against my neck. "Well while you were sitting in that rusted old chair I got to thinking, your daddy, Harvey, seemed a bit reckless in his dying days so obviously that ruled him out as a living reminder, but you were screaming so loudly about those burns, how are they doing by the way, and that made me think. Little Emily Dent who looked so much like hero daddy Harvey Dent and was greatly admired by the public who simultaneously worried so much about her return would be the greatest gift to the world and then a few things turned sour and there I was sitting locked away from you, but imagine that! The corrupted White Knight's daughter wearing my face and all of Gotham's shame, you would be the perfect reminder to all of our city's inhabitants of what the world really is!"

I stared at the monster during his rant as he rose during his inflections and dropped painfully back into me as his voice dipped spitting into my face as his speech became more animated. Tears had started leaking from my eyes at the mention of my father and his dreadful fall from grace.

"Hey! Don't worry, this won't be all too unpleasant a gifting process, I even have something extra stolen to make this more sensational if you know what I mean," he winked suggestively and I moaned the adrenaline and the paralysing agent working painfully in my body. "Shush, darling; now once this is over you won't have to worry about Gotham anymore, you see, you Dents are quite fascinating and I find myself quite flighty after being cooped up for so long so now you need to cooperate nicely and then I will move on to my next focus of chaos, but this all rests on you so I need you to promise that you are going to do as you are told, okay?"

"Okay." I responded quietly.

"No. Say: "I promise, my love, that I will do as I am told" and do it in a nice voice," he pressed his fingers into my shoulders painfully.

"I promise, my love, that I will do as I am told," my voice spoke clearly and he giggled bouncing painfully against my stomach.

"That's wonderful! Now first I want you to hold a long and lovely guttural scream while I give you that little something extra that will give the people outside a reason to start banging on the door," he said and withdrew another prepared syringe brandishing it around my neck.

He gave me a meaningful look and I sucked in a large breath before expelling it in a scream which deafened my ears as he dug the needle into my neck a chemical burn soon following the small prick. He pulled it out leaving a small wound to dribble blood while I still screamed in an amount of true fear; he tossed the syringe on the floor to roll away next to the other one and grinned before smothering my lips with his own sticking his tongue down my throat. He carried on until my beating heart activated the drug inside me resulting in the most horrid experience in my life. His tongue had started wriggling around my mouth licking the insides of my cheeks playing with my tongue his lips all the while waking up my lips, a terrible feeling of pleasure had risen in me and I feared whatever he had put into my bloodstream. His grease paint had smudged onto my face by the time he had felt he had assaulted my senses nicely enough and sent a breathy smile my way.

"Now, I want you to give me another, they don't seem to be running yet, and do it louder than you could ever possibly do it," he commanded and with my constricting chest I let loose another blood curdling scream as he laughed loudly, maniacally.

He ended my scream with another sensational kiss and I heard the running of shoes and the shouts of those outside him giggling all at the same time as banging had started on the door my heart pounding in my ears.

"Now, doll, you need to stay quiet for this last part just think about all those people in Gotham you will be saving," I nodded as the banging and shouting continued and he picked the switchblade, which had found its way to the floor, up and brandished it gazing longingly at it with a mad smile, he turned his gaze to me. "Let's put a smile on that face, love."

He raised his hand and neatly sliced through my face carving my cheeks through and I sucked in my breath holding it in as the pain seared through my face with his screaming laugh echoing off the walls and into my mind burning itself in forever. There was a loud bang on the door as if something heavy and large had been thrust against it interrupting his laughing into a small giggling fit and he leant over me with my face bleeding onto the floor to pool around my head.

"It looks like our dear friends the police are here to help; it's a pity that the Batman only operates at night his half expression would be priceless to behold," he licked my blood off the knife and took my hand placing it in the numb limb and crossing my arm over my chest. "You have done wonderfully my dear so now I think that I am going to skip country, maybe somewhere colder, maybe England, who knows?! Catch you on the wild side, love, may chaos reign supreme!"

He laughed loudly standing as he did so and stomped down on my stomach eliciting a scream which split the corners of my mouth further with the door finally giving and breaking down. The purple clad painted monster tossed an entire deck of joker playing cards into the foray and jumped through a window broken with a well aimed shot. Medics rushed into the scene as the police scanned the surrounding area running out to the streets to possibly catch the villain. My eyes shut tightly as I was lifted off the ground in a gurney and rushed to the Emergency Room while shouting and the few cameras around flashed behind my eyelids. I felt a prick in my arm and a chemical burn which raised my heart rate in fear before I felt everything go black.


	8. Chapter 8

I found myself floating with voices drifting into my mind, worried and hurried whispers all asking the same thing, I drifted back into a dark abyss with that screaming laughter ghosting around my mind jeering remarks stabbing at my psych questioning taunts mocking my values. I don't know for how long I spent under in some dark corner of my head, but when I came to everything was remarkably clear and precise. I breathed in sharply as my eyes snapped open to an irritating beeping sounding around me and attempted to sit up only to find myself restrained to the bed by buckled straps. I turned my head around taking in my sights discovering that I was strapped into a hospital bed in what appeared to be the Intensive Care Unit with nurses bustling around with other patients. I tried to lift my arm without thinking that it was restrained in an unconscious attempt to scratch at my face which began itching and the clanging attracted the attention of one of the nurses who alerted the others to my revival. They jumped to attention calling something out to the hall way and fussed around me reading my charts and the monitors which I now became aware of and making notes as I stared blankly at them wondering what was going on. A doctor walked in and examined my retina response as I numbly answered a few questions of his which made no sense to me because I was supposed to know who I was without a doubt. He walked out not answering my questions of what had happened and why was I strapped to the bed and why was my face itching so badly. He returned some time later with a tired looking Bruce who sat by me immediately and held my hand as the doctor faced us his eyes trained mainly on me.

"Good evening Emily," he began and with a start my head twisted to the window to see that it was indeed the evening and looked back to him as he was gesturing to Bruce. "Do you know who this man is?"

"Yeah, he is Bruce Wayne my adoptive father, why?" I asked and his expression lightened up by a few degrees.

"That's good because what I am about to explain may bring you some shock," he began and elaborated to my frown of confusion. "You have been in a coma for two and a half weeks. After your encounter with The Joker the emergency response team were unaware that he had given you a rather interesting combination of drugs and the strong sedatives that they had administered to you reacted with each other to send you into a drug induced coma. We kept you under to deal with the wounds which were sustained by you and to allow you time for them to heal and for your system to excrete the harmful chemicals."

"Uh...Why am I restrained?" I asked dumbly while staring at him with a blank expression which concealed my utter surprise, two and a half weeks!

"We figured that after your revival you may be somewhat confused and scratch at the itching which we are sure you are experiencing right now, but we will release you as soon as you promise not to touch your face," the doctor told me and I nodded my head slowly not registering as to why I would be wanting to touch my face. "We would also recommend caution while eating to not be over zealous with chewing or you may tear the repairing tissue."

"I am so sorry, but what is wrong with my face?" I asked rather stupidly my memory omitting something from me surely and the doctor looked to Bruce who held my hand tighter.

"The Joker, uh, while you were detained by him, uh, don't you remember?" The doctor looked extremely uncomfortable and I turned my head to Bruce quickly.

"What did he do?" I asked him in a panic.

"Doctor Smith, do you have a mirror you could bring?" Bruce asked the doctor who left to retrieve one from one of the nurses and turned to me. "Uh, this may be rather shocking, uh, but I suppose it is for the best that you don't remember this."

Bruce undid the buckled straps which held me to the bed while Doctor Smith handed me a vanity mirror and they helped me into a sitting position carefully making sure that the cords didn't become tangled. I held the vanity in my hand and with a frown and a glance at the both of them I looked into my reflection only to quickly slam the mirror down on the bedside table, the tape. The ghost of searing pain flittered across my face, my face scrunched and I quickly clung onto Bruce as the tightness in my chest burst through and my silent sobs wracked my body as he patted my back trying to calm me. Soon the tears calmed and I faced Bruce my eyes feeling puffy with a headache sitting behind them.

"I don't think a man more unpleasant than him could exist." I stated shakily with a small dry laugh. "If he decides to run into me again I think I will deck him."

My statement seemed to placate the room around me and little to do was needed except to brief me on proper cleaning procedures and warning me against leaving my face submerged in water for prolonged periods of time. It became apparent that the incident was blocked from my memory so to further question my recollection about the happenings would only prove to be disastrous. Not all hope was lost for my face though, they had managed to stitch it together in a way which would leave a neat line of a scar and a special type of cream would reduce the inflammation of the wound. That knowledge had soothed me in my freak out over public horror, a neat scar was better than a horrific scar. Bruce had stayed until I told him to go home when the nurses came to administer my sedatives and pain medication for the evening and he assured me that he would be back as soon as possible. I did not ask about the purple clad painted monster, I did not care to know anything further about _him_.

I had stayed until the week's end recovering from the drug induced coma and having my dressings changed while I was awake to be aware of what I needed to do and being briefed on the types of food which wouldn't strain my cheeks. My release was kept from the media, but when I walked out with Bruce to the Rolls with Alfred waiting inside there was still a storm of cameras flashing and questions shouted at me while I kept my head down. My final week at the Wayne Manor was spent in dread and a desire to never leave the safety of the comforting stone and marble walls, but I told Bruce that I had to at least complete my year at Hogwarts before looking at alternative education. I spent most of the time with Bruce and Alfred when time and schedule could allow for it and my extra time reading up on whatever I could and double checking all of my holiday home work. I had missed Christmas in my coma so I had sent Luna a letter with a gift of muggle chocolate telling her that I went somewhere remote for my time and asking her if she could keep Scarecrow with her until Hogwarts as getting her through customs would be rather troublesome. Scarecrow's absence had clearly indicated that she was a stress which I wouldn't need to worry about. Sometime during the week Commissioner Gordon had come to send his personal regards telling me that whatever could be done to track _him_ down was being done. On the Friday before school began Bruce and I left for England on our secure and fast flight with a sad farewell to Alfred and Lucius and cameras flashing with reporters' shouting our way through the airport. On the Saturday we had touched down to spend a last evening at Bruce's hotel and a last bonding session and on Sunday we had woken early to leave for the King's Cross station.

All was running according to plan and I stepped through the barrier with a strange warm wind pushing me through rather harshly which I turned to, but seeing nothing strange I kept my head down my scarf wrapped around my face as I stepped onto the train to transport students back to Hogwarts. I found myself an empty compartment and blacked out the windows while I changed into my robes and re-sized my trunk packing everything right. I was rifling through my school bag when my hand brushed against something metallic and I frowned pulling out the handgun which I realised that I had forgotten about in the rush of my final week. I took out the report sheet and memorised it sitting down with the gun held tightly in my hand; I didn't know about the Wizarding world, but when I stepped into the muggle world I wanted to be prepared to eliminate _him_. I folded the sheet and stuffed it along with the ammunition case and ordinary rounds into a side compartment of my school bag and slipping the gun which I made sure was kept on safety into my pocket. I re-checked my school assignments one last time before re-reading the worthless Defence book to keep time until I felt the train grind to a halt. I stood and gathered my belongings stuffing all the loos objects into the main compartment of my school bag and left the train with my head lowered and my scarf wrapped neatly around my face. Several people were looking around in confusion before moving on to the carriages which I took alone this time and hoped that I wouldn't run into anyone that day. After arriving at the castle I lugged my trunk to the Ravenclaw Tower and left it locked beside my bed before returning outside to become reacquainted with the grounds. I kept to the back passages where people wouldn't be walking around in and as supper time arrived I sulked back to the dormitories to shut the curtains around my bed and sleep an empty sleep. Ever since the encounter and my subsequent coma I had noticed that when I fell asleep I managed to do so for a few hours of blank bliss to wake up completely revitalised and unable to fall back asleep. As my wakefulness ebbed from me I hoped that I would be able to wear my scarf around my face no questions asked, but somehow common sense told me that I wasn't so lucky.

I woke early and was grateful that no one was stirring from their beds so that I could have the bathroom to myself as I showered and changed my dressings applying the cream with care not to disturb the stitches which would soon dissolve. My task complete, I picked my belongings up and made the arduous journey to the Great Hall while wrapping my face with my scarf and hoping that I wouldn't run into any people. I sat in the empty hall waiting for the food to show up on the plates so that I could quickly grab some toast and make a run for my first lesson of the day. I grew increasing nervous, however, as more people arrived with the sun's rise with the food still not appearing with the hall's chatter booming into my mind. Soon the entire hall had arrived and the entirety of the staff had filled the head table and professor Dumbledore had risen from his seat with the hall's silence echoing around the room.

"It is my sorrowful responsibility to be the bearer of bad news," he began and I looked to him my curiosity piqued. "Several of you may have noticed that a few students did not make it onto the train yesterday and their subsequent absence from school the reason being that in a bizarre act of muggle terrorism an explosion went off at the King's Cross railway station which killed many people and injuring much more. It only brings me delight that our students were not among the fallen and that their injuries are being tended to by Healers at St. Mungo's and that they will be returning to Hogwarts soon. I can only hope that the muggle authorities are able to apprehend the terrorist as soon as possible and that the terrorist does not strike again."

He sat down to the uproar of students chattering fearful for their friends' safety while the food came up and I soon found myself with no appetite staring in numb shock and thanking whatever impulse told me to tell Bruce that he need not walk me to the barrier and to go back to sleep. A small memory, a flicker of a voice came to me and I stood suddenly not feeling up to the presence of people, pure and innocent people who were at a risk of death with my mere existence in Britain. I left the hall my eyes stoic while I kept the tears at bay, the self-pitying and weak tears which I did not deserve as the same thought ran through my mind. It was all too clear to me, England rarely ever saw such an extreme act of terrorism, _he_ did suggest a move to a colder climate and _he_ would love to torment me with _his_ psychological games. It was my entire fault for going back and now a country which did not deserve to step into _his_ twisted games was forced into it; I wouldn't be surprised if I received a letter telling me to leave and never come back even if I was born here. I entered my History of Magic class's room and sat in the front staring at the black board in a dumb trance contemplating my purpose in a land while my publicly known presence tore it up. People arrived soon and I hunched myself inwards trying not to be anywhere near anyone in case I further implemented their demise. The day carried on with me handing in assignments and avoiding everyone as much as possible while half heartedly throwing myself into school work only to be caught up a gut wrenching sense of guilt. Instead of going to bed that evening I silently made my way to the Room of Requirements where I loaded up my gun and shot at everything the room managed to conjure up for me not caring on perfecting my aim just venting my empty anger at a beast who un did the world.

The next day was better and while word of the escape from Azkaban reached my ears I did not engage in social activities and only spoke when the teachers questioned my scarf which I explained was from a cold which spread easily. Their commands of going to the Hospital Wing fell on my deaf ears as I focussed instead on school work with their suspicious expressions sent my way. I found myself laughing at the woman dressed in pink's new Educational Decree which banned teachers from speaking to students about anything other than their paid subjects and wondered how this would complicate her life in the long run. The escape was the obvious reason for this new Decree and while I worried about how this would aid Lord Voldemort further I had bigger issues to deal with and avoided any speculation on the topic. Through the course of the week I had also found out about professor Hagrid's probation which made me angry at the vile woman's vindictive motives as professor Hagrid's lessons while being dangerous were certainly the most interesting ones to look forward to. The tensions had risen in the school that month with two teachers placed on probation, the ban of extra information and the escape that I was glad that the only social obligation I had was the Dumbledore's Army meetings. Those meetings were an excellent form of grounding and had me focussed and sharp which also aided me in ignoring the strange looks I had received for wearing the scarf around my face which the teachers still tried to send me off to the Hospital Wing over. My school work had not taken the back seat in my worried state of mind as in one of my Astronomy Tower evenings I had decided that there was little I could do about what had transpired at the King's Cross while the students had returned shaken, but smiling. In non-DA meeting evenings I had focussed myself better with my aim and dealing with the strong recoil that the gun had by throwing my weight into each shot and while I felt funny by being a witch and using a muggle weapon I knew that as a minor in the Wizarding world's eyes they wouldn't take my using magic out of school too lightly.

The end of the month had come to take me by surprise yet again and it was time to take the dressings off as well as the scarf which covered my disfigurement well enough, my stitches had dissolved off soon under them. I stood in front of the mirror in the Ravenclaw bathrooms stripped down in my towel with fine yet obvious red lines stretching themselves' across my face; I sighed and rubbed off the water which had not dissolved from my shower dressing into my uniform. My task done I set down my scarf to hang around my neck and walked out to the Great Hall; in my previous letter from Bruce he had told me to walk in proudly and not care about the stares and whispers as I had confided in him my fears about their reactions to my uncovered face. I walked in to find several students already engrossed in their meals and conversations and I sat besides Luna who I knew would be gentler in initial reaction. I pulled two pieces of toast towards myself and realised with a start that this was the first thing I had eaten since arriving to the school.

"Good morning, how are you this morning?" I faced Luna while taking a bite of toast chewing gently at it.

"Hello-" she was cut off by her gasp when she had turned to address me and her expression filled with horror as I grimaced. "What happened?"

"Well I feel just dandy thank you for asking and what do you mean?" I played dumb for a second.

"Your face, it's, what happened Emily?" she asked and her eyes clouded over with sadness.

"I fell." I answered bluntly lifting my hand to subconsciously rub at the slight bumps of the scars. "It was rather hilarious; I tripped while walking down the stairs and managed to fall head first into a window, it cut my up rather badly, but I was lucky that I managed to be taken to the hospital where they fixed me up quite neatly."

"Oh my, how clumsy can you get?" Luna's rhetoric was followed by a lightly hysterical laugh which I laughed to as well.

"I don't know, the doctor's were quite flabbergasted themselves and told me that I wasn't allowed to walk any stairs for a while." I played my injury off as a joke and went with it.

"Now I know why you were wearing that scarf so much. Emily, you need to be more careful with how you walk or next it will be your neck on the line," she said shakily.

"I know, I am so worried that I am going to be walking around and then miss an invisible step do catch me if you are around will you?" I looked at her earnestly.

"Oh, I will be more than there, you will be sorely mistaken if I allow for you to fall through another window," she warned as we turned to our breakfast and exchanged more light hearted conversation.

That day I had many heads turned and many whispers following me around which I resolutely ignored and when questioned about it I fed people the story I had fed Luna laughing off the entire event like it was some ill timed prank which had befallen me. The teachers were a harder nut to crack and I had to after an unsuccessful laugh take on a more serious approach and I was sure that they didn't fully believe my tale, but I ignored the niggling feeling in the back of my mind and set myself to school mode. That evening I had made my way to the Great Hall and several heads turned to affirm the whispers which had spread about me while I sat next to Luna to shift things around on my plate. Exiting the hall I felt a pair of piercing blue eyes on my back, I turned to stare confidently at professor Dumbledore's sad expression which stopped me making me wonder if he perhaps took to following the muggle news that winter vacation and read about my plight. I made my solitary way to the Room of Requirement to shove in some school work and gun practise my head full of the day's overwhelming events and questions which felt awfully similar to the ones from my coma.


	9. Chapter 9

February had arrived pulling my hair at the roots secluding me from the social atmosphere of the school and back to my anti social normality obsessing over perfection in school and honing my quick aiming reflexes. I paid this regression little mind or care as I was finally happy that the dreams had stopped, even though I still only received about four hours of sleep each night, and my psychosis was fading shot by shot. The whispers about my face had subsided somewhat due to my constant absence from the Great Hall, the only time I went was to receive my letters from Bruce, and my only experience of people came through class times, Dumbledore's Army meetings and occasionally in the Library although that was my go to place during meal times. Life felt fine, but the logical side of my thought processing told me that what I had become was rather dysfunctional, that thought was quickly ignored and suppressed. The next Hogsmeade weekend was fast looming and I was well prepared to sit that one out except the Friday before I had received a request from Draco Malfoy to meet him in the Entrance Hall after breakfast. This had surprised me somewhat as we had not spoken since the first year when he had told me not to bother him with anything and not to speak with him so it was rather ironic I remarked internally. That Friday was rather uneventful and I actually found myself bored by the lessons, their simplicity grating on my curious nerves as I ran the note over my head contemplating about whatever Draco must have needed. Saturday had morphed into existence after a sleepless wandering night and after refreshing myself in my dormitories I stood in the Entrance Hall to wait for the end of breakfast. The end of breakfast came with Draco Malfoy approaching me alone and gently pulled me by the crook of my arm to get ticked off by Filch who glared at me before grunting us off; I would say that the caretaker has a natural hatred for adolescents. We walked for some time in a tense silence before coming to The Three Broomsticks and after placing an order of drinks, I chose water, we sat down in a corner of the busy restaurant.

"So, uh, what did you want to talk about?" I asked after a moment referring to the letter's request and Draco started out of his revere.

"My mother is concerned about your ailing health and would like to find out what has happened to bother you so," he replied after some deliberation.

"How would she know about my "ailing health"? And why would she be so concerned about her dead estranged sister's daughter, I thought they were glad that my mother was shot judging by the fact that only Andromeda came to her funeral," my response was laced with ice and dry sarcasm.

"You know there are social delicacies involved, my mother could hardly organise an International Portkey to America on such short notice without a few brows being raised," he began and I cut him off.

"But Andromeda did and she helped my father and me for my first year and extended a welcome during the summers when I wasn't attending Muggle School." I pointed this out artfully.

"Okay, fine. My mother hasn't been the best aunt nor have I been the best cousin, but you have to bear in mind that you lived an entire ocean away and we had a few social images to keep up," he rushed over his words.

"I would fancy that I would be the perfect social image to upkeep for the reformed Malfoys even if there are ridiculous Black family codes to abide by." I lazily and tauntingly spoke out enjoying Draco's uncomfortable expression before launching off. "Nevertheless, what has gotten your mother in a stress over me? Why does she think that a small family intervention is needed?"

"Minister Fudge was over for a pre Christmas lunch and in passing it was mentioned that you were adopted in the summer and it came about after much pressing that your father was murdered. At first mother wanted to send a Howler to you to yell at you for not telling her, but she soon realised that you are an orphan and after keeping the house up with her crying she told me that I was a very bad person for not making sure that you were happy when you were clearly not doing so well. She soon calmed down enough to tell me that I was to get all the information from you concerning what had transpired and I am to make sure that you are doing healthily," Draco explained as our drinks had arrived and I took a long and deliberate sip of my water.

"Ah, something about that Fudge character seemed eager to spill a few secrets," my murmur was loud enough to be caught by Draco and he leaned forwards a little. "It is true; my father was murdered. The exact mechanisms of his death is one of my city's greatest kept secrets and many would like to keep it that way, but I am sure that your mother doesn't want to know about my father and how he died. My father's job involved him in a plot against the city created by one man who wanted to bring absolute anarchy to the minds of the people. This criminal mastermind managed to get to all of our minds in one way or another and after his arrest and my father's death my mind was altered by his psychological games that he loved to jab at me being my father's daughter. Essentially in a nutshell; this man took a city and me and turned our psychology around in a way that left us all scarred."

"A simple muggle can't be all that bad can he be?" Draco asked frowning and a dry laugh sounded from my chest.

"That "simple muggle" blew up a hospital, killed several important people in the city and many innocent civilians in the cross fires and he tried to get people to kill each other, he screams evil," I said and took another sip of water.

"What was his motive?" he curiously asked.

"There was none. He didn't want money in fact he destroyed a small fortune while killing a money counter, he didn't even want power, he just wanted to watch the city destroy itself while he laughed at the burning buildings." I answered to his mortified expression at my mention of _his_ destruction of wealth.

"That's insane," he laughed nervously and glanced quickly at his wrist watch. "That doesn't explain though, how you came back from winter with your face destroyed and your isolation continuing and don't feed me that "I fell through a window" story because I know that you aren't as clumsy as you made out."

"I was due for an appointment at a muggle healer to control some flashbacks that I had been experiencing," I sighed and began screwing up my eyes and trying to remember the few weeks of that holiday. "The criminal mastermind is that crazy that he managed to break out of a place designed to keep people in and the tabloids were obviously a little over zealous with what they were saying about me and something was slipped through the security. He got in. He got into the hospital and had waited for an opportune moment to strike. He probably wasn't so content to sit while the city repaired its psych. He got hold of me and while he had me paralysed he cut me up. I don't remember much of what happened, only snippets come through at the most inappropriate times, but what I do remember is that England will soon be in trouble if it already isn't."

"So he hasn't been caught?!" Draco exclaimed in outrage and I shushed him glancing around nervously. "Why hasn't the muggle authorities done anything about this?"

"They can't; the British authorities are probably unaware of what faces them and aren't properly prepared on what needs to be done. This criminal isn't like normal muggles; he is brutal and will do whatever it takes to get his message across, he is a threat which needs to be neutralised as soon as possible before he kills more people." I spoke clearly in a low and serious voice.

"Why don't they then? If this man manages to hurt a witch then he is clearly too dangerous to be allowed," Draco spoke and I saw the wheels in his head turning.

"This is where diplomacy stabs the muggles in their backs." I started with a dry laugh. "In the muggle world there is barely any death penalty which can be applied so the criminal's death would have to seem an accident and there is hardly a prison secure enough to hold him as it is clear that he has successfully broken out of an asylum."

"Why don't they do it the magical way then?" Draco's mouth seemed to run on its own accord.

"The muggles can't because they aren't aware of better alternatives, but my plan is to draw him back to my city and as much as it would pain my adoptive father I plan to let slip a head shot," my eyes screwed in pain at the thought of Bruce's heart ache at my fall to murder.

"You plan on killing him?" he said incredulously with a slight pitch to his voice.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be the first time I was on the other side of a smoking gun." I said humourlessly and thoughtlessly staring at my empty glass a dark expression steeling itself on my face.

"What do you mean?" he asked his voice cracking with concern.

"I mean to say that in my city one faces death a lot more than what others would," my eyes flicked up to his to gauge his reaction as I remembered myself.

"Wow. When your mother died we didn't realise we were literally leaving you to the dogs of society, it's a wonder that you don't sneer at my very presence," he trailed off.

"I was raised by my father to be very accepting and just; I try not to judge people by their ignorance," I smiled at him and he laughed dryly.

"Mother is going to throw a fit," he began with a groan. "She will probably want to smother you with a thousand questions of her own."

"Oh the joy of a second inquisition!" I proclaimed in a playfully mortified voice. "I doubt that you giving her the grizzly details will even satiate her curiosity, but I do trust that you won't tell her of my plan to take the criminal down, do I?"

"If I tell her that she will storm the castle and demand for you to be checked into St. Mungo's for entertaining fantasies of running after murderers," he assured me indirectly that I was not to worry.

"That would be a sight to behold," my smile turned into laughter from both of us as we pictured Draco's mother storming into the school and causing a scene and soon calmed down. "I doubt this is the last that I am going to be seeing of you. I have a feeling that your mother wants to watch me for a while."

"That you are correct about; at one point mother seemed just about ready to revoke your adoption and take you in until father pointed out that no one magical knows about your father's death and of our relations," he leant back in his seat. "Speaking of which; what is your adoptive father like?"

This was the subject change enough for me to launch into an explanation of how Bruce came to adopt me and telling Draco about his business with Wayne Enterprises and how it is was an old family business which helped the citizens and the city in improving itself. Draco seemed amiable enough to the topic and asked a few questions on his curiosity while being perfectly hospitable to my questions of how his family had been doing in the past few years. Time seemed to fly right past us and we found ourselves finishing our conversation on our walk back to the castle with him asking about school work which I was well ahead in. When we reached the Entrance Hall we stopped to observe the few people walking around in their own business.

"I expect to see you tomorrow morning for breakfast," he started.

"How come?" I turned to him.

"Mother will have my head if you miss another day of eating which I cannot lie about and she really will storm the castle," he looked genuinely scared and I smiled gently.

"Let me guess; I need to be at breakfast forever now?" I shifted on my feet.

"Yeah, mother doesn't want to miss another family member's funeral," he smiled sadly and turned away to walk to the dungeons.

"Thanks!" I called after his retreating back his waved arm an apt enough response as I skipped up to the seventh floor for practise.

My target shooting was improving and I had the Room of Requirements bring up animated targets which would work on real life exposure as a particularly unpleasant person, namely _him_, wouldn't be standing around waiting to be shot. After finishing my ten rounds maximum I asked the Room to provide an area to finish school work and further myself in Wizarding general knowledge which seemed to be the only thing I could do as I was overly prepared as far as studying was concerned.

That evening I found myself on the Astronomy Tower staring vacantly into the darkness ignoring the rain which pelted through my robes and thinking back to the conversation I had with Draco. Was it wise that I had told him all that I had? What if this was merely a joke or a ploy to get information that would soon do me ill? As I stood with those paranoid questions floating around my head my hand subconsciously reached into my bag and I rummaged around in the forgotten contents section until it brushed against the side of something which felt like smoothly laminated card. I frowned while grasping it my arm contracting to pull it out and through the weak darkness of the rain I was able to make out a blood stained burnt joker playing card. My expression froze as I tried desperately to remember how I had come to be in possession of this interesting signature my mind scrambling going into over drive as I tried to remember the day of my appointment. Coming across a blank I found my senses overwhelmed by maniacal laughter and explosions flashing through my eyes my chest constricting painfully as I slid to the ground. I shakily reached for the tranquillizers I kept in my bag for situations such as this and in my deliriously panicked state I downed ten times the necessary amount, obviously a bad chemical reaction. My mind flickered in between states of sitting on the cold wet Astronomy Tower floor to lying on a lavatory floor bleeding out and in pain back to my shivering state only to be harshly tugged into my mind where my arms were seared through and blood dripped from my struggling wrists and desperately trying to stay awake in a freezing tub of water. I must have skittered at some point because when I was allowed presence of thought I found myself crouched high up in a tree deep in the Forbidden Forest with lightening beginning to crackle above my head. I screamed when I was pulled back and a monster's laughing face was forcing its mouth onto mine whispering screaming terrible thoughts and emotions into my mind. In another moment of clarity I found myself spluttering water from my lungs as I swam my way out of the Great Lake probably after in an insane fit of throwing myself into it. Dawn had broken and with it my slam back into reality as I found myself throwing myself out of a second story window somehow knocking my senses back into me effectively cutting off the episode. I stood and found that I miraculously hadn't lost my bag and my heart stilled as I realised what had happened and was glad that the gun pouch seemed untouched. I slowly made my way to the Entrance Hall and peered into the Great Hall to see that the food was not laid. I raced to the Ravenclaw Tower to have the fastest shower noticing all the scratches which had made themselves apparent after the mud and grime had been scrubbed away and dressed into a clean set of robes setting the others aside for laundry. I made my sleep deprived and terrified way down to the Great Hall and found Draco standing by the entrance clearly waiting for my arrival. I saw that he took notice of my haggard appearance, but did not make any commentary instead leading me to my table making sure that I had food on my plate before going to his table to talk with his friends. I successfully made no eye contact with anyone and after I had finished my meagre piece of toast I looked to Draco nodding while I left the Hall.

I did not speak of the event to anyone and soon fell into the routine of meeting Draco outside the Great Hall every morning to shove some food down my throat and occasionally exchanging short conversation. My letters to Bruce were their usual weekly affair which helped distract me from my terror of that evening and while I did not mention to him about it his external news was uplifting. In my terror of the evenings I had the Room lock me up until dawn's break so as to prevent something serious from happening. During the course of the month the Quibbler had published an article on the night that Lord Voldemort had returned to power and I sheepishly asked Luna for a copy with the promise that I would spend my break times with her as well as breakfast as I felt sorry for abandoning her again. She happily obliged, but warned me that the woman dressed in pink had banned her father's magazine at Hogwarts so I would need to be cautious with my copy, I assured her that the vile woman would have a hard time in trying to pry any copy off anyone. I enjoyed the article thoroughly and found myself relaxed by the fact that Harry had finally gotten his moment to tell the truth of his terrible experience. The article had me questioning my idea to keep my abduction private from the Wizarding world; I supposed that after Gotham's media overdose I couldn't bear to relive the experience for the nth time. In the classes I had that day of the article I smiled at Harry for his bravery as I knew that his interview may have caused him some emotional duress.

Towards the end of the month where routine had settled sufficiently enough an interesting interjection had occurred which solidified my distaste for the woman dressed in pink. It was an average day of making my way to the Room of Requirements when a woman's shriek which stilled my blood had me running for the Entrance Hall to help whichever poor soul out of some terrible fate which had befallen them. I flew down the stair case to be greeted by the pitiful sight of the Divinations professor hunched over two trunks tears leaking from her eyes as the woman dressed in pink leered over her with a scroll tucked in sight in her robes. My heart went out to the professor who was in the process of being fired from her position which she had kept for sixteen years if her mutterings were of any truth while the vile woman continually stood up against professor McGonagall who expressed sympathy and outrage over such an injustice. I was glad when professor Dumbledore entered telling the ex-professor that she was able to stay for as long as she pleased asking professor McGonagall to escort the crying woman back to her office. The woman in pink was very put out by being put back into her place and was very displeased when it became apparent that professor Dumbledore had found a centaur replacement. Everyone cleared soon after the amazement and awe had worn off and after a paranoid glance at the dying sunlight I had quickly made my way to the Room to have myself locked up and safe from the potential of another attack. I wasn't too sure about how long I would be able to survive like this and I was sure Draco would soon be having words with me, but I could only hope that my mind wasn't falling again.


	10. Chapter 10

February had gently turned into a blended mess of April and May while March had performed a vanishing act; literally, March was nowhere to be seen in my memories as if my mind was omitting some terrible piece of memory entirely. I had remembered what I had studied and learned, but for the rest I drew a blank and a few whispered screams. Clearly I had been acting normally as when I came to during the first week of April everything was as per usual and no one spared me a second glance, but I felt rather ominous about the whispering screams which licked at my memory and the bruises which sat around my eyes. Congruently as I struggled with my resurfacing psychosis my teachers had remembered that the O. were due to start in a few months time and started loading on the scare tactic pre exam talks. I was bored by all of their threats that if the student population did not focus then we would fail at life, but the teachers were redeemed in my eyes by handing out extra home work which aided as a distraction from my worries. I was glad that I had the Dumbledore's Army meetings to attend to every other night as they gave me a break to the monotonous buzz which had become my psychosis and excessive study, but soon my luck would come to an end as it would.

Early midway into April on a clear chilly night, I would soon find out, we were routinely practicing a new spell which Harry had taught us; the Patronus Charm. If properly conjured it could protect the caster against Dementors and provide an emergency form of communication the latter I am sure no one quite knew about, but in my March haze I must have read it up somewhere explaining my knowledge on them. A few people were examining their corporeal forms while others were desperately trying to force out silvery wisps of smoke. The trick to producing a great form of protection that is the Patronus is that while the incantation is being pronounced one needed to have a powerfully strong happy memory in their minds. Memory not being my strongest points was failing me and the more I tried to dig deeper to a time where I had my laughing happy father the more I kept on hearing the explosions and _his_ taunting laughter. I cast my gaze around desperately and subconsciously rubbed at my neck feeling the slight metallic scratch that came from the chain which held my father's coin. I dropped my hand to hold the coin taking a glance at the un-burnt side, the clean side; it wasn't really a memory that came to life, but it was worth a shot. I focussed on that sudden feeling of peace and joy and safety and with my mind focussed on that emotion I cried out the incantation and to my utter surprise and happiness a large silvery bat emerged out of the tip of my wand fluttering around my head madly as if looking out for danger. I stared at it in admiration and its form made sense; I wouldn't doubt that the entire city of Gotham's Patronus would be a bat as one had been its protector in times of dire need. I kept hanging onto that feeling which had produced my fluttery protector until the room fell silent and its focus turned to Harry and a House Elf who seemed to be a friendly acquaintance, the disappearances of our silvery companions made the brightly lit room feel very dark. The House Elf after many right guesses by Harry had let on that the woman dressed in pink had found us out and was on her way to bust us in our act. After a moment of stunned silence in which a tangible sense of horror slowly crept in on the psych of all who were present Harry told us to run and quick. I was pushed through and out of the Room in the crowd's general panic and found myself pressed against the wall opposite the door as the last few people pushed their way out, Harry being the last.

"What are you waiting for?! Don't just stand around waiting to get caught!" Harry had yelled in his hysteria of the moment as my mind ticked going into slow motion.

I heard the slapping of shoes at the end of the corridor which snapped me out of my crowd induced panic and I flung myself into the secret alcove which contained a large statue proudly taking up the space which I hid in after meetings so I could quickly return to the Room after everyone had cleared out. The woman dressed in pink led a pack of Slytherin students which contained Draco to the now blank wall and I pressed myself against the wall sucking in a breath which I held as the vile woman and her pack entered the Room. They emerged shortly looking thoroughly un-amused, the vile woman read out the Army members' names from the page which she had stolen from within and Draco coughed when my name was read out pretending to have choked on his spittle. She barked out several orders for everyone present to scour the area to look for anyone on the list which everyone jumped to attention to and ran off. She gave a simpering laugh before with a very smug smile on her face she walked off the corridors echoing with her heels and her victorious humming. I waited several minutes before I released the tension in my lungs and stepped out of my hiding place my head slightly buzzing with a terribly familiar feeling and the dreaded shaky feeling from within. I looked to the blank wall in terror knowing that it was far too dangerous to stay that night; they might come back, but where to then? I had my gun and all its ammunition packed inside the special holster I had designed which was strapped to my upper thigh so the dormitory was no option. The Astronomy Tower was a definite no go place, what if I threw myself off? The grounds were a dangerous option, but at least there was no one around to accidentally kill and no heights to throw myself off my only problem was the Great Lake, but I knew a spell. Quickly coming to a decision I ran as fast as I was coherently sane to the Forbidden Forest and found myself the closest tree which was close enough to the edge, but far enough to keep me hidden from view. I hadn't memorised the counter spell yet, but I had calculated that it would wear off in the right amount of time so as I had my back pressed comfortably against the trunk of my chosen tree I cast the Sticking Charm which I had learnt twenty four hours prior on myself securing my fate for the evening.

I let out a relieved breath and stowed away my wand for the time being letting my head fall back against the bark of the tree and allowing for my senses to taste the surroundings. The tree I had chosen had an overgrowth which covered my head yet stopped so that I could gaze out to the night sky and for the first time that year I noticed the stars shining brightly in all their profound, proud and infinite glory. My awe was short lived, however, as a snapped twig threw me into a paranoid haze which thrust me sharply into my mind and with a slight "oh" I found myself falling into razor sharp suppressed memories which ate at my psych. Laughter as I screamed my lungs out with smouldering arms, terror filled anguish as two concurring explosions flashed across a screen and the dreadful and hopeless agony of lying helplessly on a tiled floor as my face bled out. I came to for a few seconds only to find myself sitting in a rusted steel chair with a dreadful figure standing leering at my struggles. _What's wrong Emily? Little Emily doesn't want to play anymore. Little Emily did some bad things; you know she killed a guy or more? Just to save her little neck. What would daddy think? Daddy wouldn't be so happy, daddy would be very sad. What's wrong Little Emily? Little, pathetic, weak and oh so corrupted Emily. Little Emily is going oh so crazy. Should Little Emily join us? I should think little Emily would be a grand extension to the plans of ANARCHY!_ A terrible scream was sounding bringing me out of my madness only for my mouth to shut when I realised that the terrible sound was mine. The silence echoed around me as the reverberations of my scream bounced around the forest and as my panting breath came out more desperate by the second soon resulting in complete hysterical sobs. I had thought that I was finally getting better, but I was wrong so now I had to lock myself up and far away to cause anyone any amount of harm and I couldn't help it; I took my medication every evening and even they did not aid my fight against my mind. A final lung shredding sob burst through my chest and I was painfully reminded of the chill when a gust of wind blew into my face causing me to shiver uncontrollably making me uncomfortable against my sticking charm which I was glad to see was still in full effect. I glanced towards the night sky and found that the stars were positioned differently and that the sky was a darker shade than when I had started out the evening; dawn was due soon. I could probably sleep, but I did not have any desire to wake by falling to the ground as the Sticking Charm wore off and I acknowledged that I could go another day without sleep. I pulled my wand out coming to a decision and lit the end up while scratching through my school bag for the first two classes text books; it was a hopeless way to pass the time as I knew them off by heart already, but I could use the extra study time. Soon after I had stuffed my books back in utter bored frustration birds had started chirping nearby signifying their wakefulness to the world and I felt the settle of morning dew fall to the ground and the shift in the atmosphere to indicate a warming day. My legs must have gotten lazy at some point in the evening as when the Sticking Charm finally wore off, to the changing of the sky's colour, I fell to my knees my arms saving me from a face full of ground. I stayed in my four legged position for a moment before picking myself off the ground stretching my aching limbs as I did so sighing in relief to the popping of my joints. I glanced around checking my surroundings and I raced off to the Ravenclaw Tower to freshen up with a shower and a change of clothes.

Draco had given me a look that clearly stated "My mother will hear about this," at breakfast that morning before crumbling slightly at my sleep deprived appearance which probably did not lend a helping hand to any form of well being I protested over that morning. He left me sitting at my table in a huff after his interrogation of my current state of mind had failed in a huff and sent me a glare when he sat at his table which I read as warning to the watchful; I tried to ignore it, but a lingering sense of dread was present. I had in the course of the day learnt about professor Dumbledore's escape from the Minister and while I was silently cheering on with the school about his incredible bravado I felt saddened by this piece of terrible news and clearly the events to unfold was to be just as terrible as his flight. The horrible woman dressed in pink had come to succeed his position as head of the school and despite the fact that her name was flung around like dung I could not quite make it out and let it stick; it sounded something like doors and under and a bridge so I stuck with Door under a Bridge. What also became apparent was Door under a Bridge's new Inquisitorial Squad which was a team of selectively handpicked students, I would say Slytherin suck-ups, who did heavens knows what for the school only that I knew that they could deduct house points from any student of their picking. An interesting interjection from the impending sense of doom that day was a genius prank pulled off by the now famed Weasley twins, Door under a Bridge couldn't pin their actions against them which gave me the greatest satisfaction. What they had produced was a spectacular fireworks display in the school building creating a grand amount of pandemonium which for once I was laughing about. The teachers acted like useless bints calling for Bridge's "help" in every lesson as a firework made its disruptive way into class rooms trying to suppress their laughter as she dragged a strangled looking Filch along with her. While the occasional banging set me off and on edge the satisfaction of seeing a soot covered Bridge at the end of the day far outweighed any form of negative self introversion. A huge downside to this new development was the obvious discontinuation of Dumbledore's Army meetings and my Scarecrow arriving with my replies from Bruce looking ruffled as if she had been searched, very telling of Bridge's new screening process.

Easter had arrived with a week off from lessons which spooked me somewhat as that left large amounts of time empty and too little to study and while the break was met with a positive attitude to the release of running around the place I was still perturbed by the lack of teaching time. Instead of hiding in a shell as I was wont to do that week I had immersed myself in the Library comparing the given material to the type provided by the Room and found that the Room had come out on top with quantity and quality seeing as it was a place which spat out desires as if it was going out of fashion. All the same though, I found myself enjoying the ancient scents of the books and the general atmosphere of learning and slaving away at work. A section I had not been able to compare in the stark daylight of watchful Librarians and students was the Restricted Section and while I had a sense of foreboding of rule breaking given Bridge's tenacious punishment tendencies I had an itch which had to be scratched at in that particular department. I had researched rather efficient Disillusionment Charm a few weeks before even going so far as to memorise the counter charm, my only trouble would be a contingency plan in case I lapsed into another episode; that was soon remedied by a new Sticking Charm I had learnt as I had figured out the other's counter spell. I had stuck around in the back of the Library under my Disillusionment Charm after it had cleared out and waited until the balls of light were snuffed out before stepping over the rope to the Restricted Section. I spent two evenings skimming through the books, some of which were frighteningly animated, cataloguing differences while stuffing the new knowledge at the back of my mind for later while at the same time wondering the purpose for a Restricted Section at all. It was rather counter-productive, if one asked me, to keep books deemed unfit and dangerous for student knowledge at a school full of teenage students who weren't honestly going to stick to all the rules given. After my two night stint at the Library and a two hour nap I set to the Room asking it to throw all the forbidden material it could dredge up and after finding me in a Library that would have given the Ancient Egyptian one of Alexander a complex I smiled finding my new hobby.

Easter break come to a close and with it classes had started again, oh the joy, and my Careers Advice meeting which, while I had skimmed over the choices for a prospective Wizarding career finding nothing which sparked my fancy, I did find rather interesting as my Muggle School experience was not geared towards any particular job type. The first morning of classes I had met Draco outside the Great Hall with his usual display of concern which I brushed off as spending all of my time studying and forgetting to sleep and sat with Luna to receive my mail from Bruce smiling as he told me of a new sustainable energy development Wayne Enterprises was developing. With breakfast concluded and a brief conversation with Luna about how her father's magazine was coping and how the weather was getting warmer I left to my meeting with my Head of House professor Flitwick in his office. I arrived with five minutes to spare so I waited for his arrival by reading through the specifics of the new energy development satiating my intense craving for muggle science and logical normality. The tiny professor finally came puffing his way into his office and after telling me to sit pulled out my student file offering me a biscuit to which I politely declined.

"So Emily, have you given any thought of what you want to enter into once you have left Hogwarts?" He asked with a warm smile.

"I haven't really," was my first admittance. "About a year ago I may have considered a Curse Breaker or an Unspeakable, but now even though an Auror sounds appealing I find my life planned in another direction."

"Go on," he urged a small frown hidden on his forehead.

"Well... I trust you know about my father's death and my adoption?" His nod and small pitying look encouraged me. "My adoptive father is the single head of a rather large fortune and a lucrative business which is family run; seeing as I am the legal heir to this empire, meaning that I will have to run this business at some point as well, I don't find much reason to find a job in the British Wizarding World."

"As a Ravenclaw you never fail with logic I see," the professor stated. "Surely you have to have some form of interest? Your marks are exemplary enough to get you into any job you wanted."

"I once did for a short while, but my interest lays an ocean away; to look after a city which needs it more than this community." I began slowly and picked up with more sincerity. "The way my biological father raised me was to look after the interests of others for the greater good and after the events culminating in his death convinced me that my city needs looking after; I cannot abandon them."

"That is a terrible piece of news for the Wizarding World, I can say," he laughed slightly after a struggled silence before looking concerned. "Emily, is there anything you would like to talk about?"

"What do you mean?" I asked startled by the abrupt change in conversation.

"After the Summer holidays you became very withdrawn and although your marks have shot to the top position in the school everyone has gotten rather concerned and after your fall through that window you don't seem to have gotten very much sleep. We, the teachers, did not want to confront you on this as Headmaster Dumbledore advised us against it, but we can't help but be worried for your safety." He had launched into a mini essay of an explanation.

"Ah, that," my sigh swept from me as I slumped in my seat to stare at a corner. "My father's death hasn't been the easiest for me and the criminal who bought about his death wasn't very easy on the city so I have been going through the motions of grief coupled with the trauma of what that person did to the city made it that bit harder to get over my summer. Winter was a bit of a technicality fault, something I saw reminded me of what had happened and I have just been trying to deal with re-opened wounds by immersing myself in my studies."

"Yes, judging by your essays it is clear that you have probably read the text books enough times to form an opinion," his voice was dry as he said that. "You don't seem to be healing though, school work for you seems to be a distraction and I am concerned that it soon may not be enough. The exams are nearing, when that happens there won't be any school work to be thrown into and it is evident that you are simply in the revision stages of learning. What are you going to do then?"

"Uh... Beg the sixth years for their home work," my joke was rather weak and I leant against the desk in front of me. "I don't know; have you got any suggestions?"

"I don't want you to use school work as a distraction and while it is brilliant that you are doing so excellently in your academics I would also like to see you look happy," he said in earnest. "It breaks your teachers' hearts to see that a brilliant student like yourself has become a shell of her former self."

I said nothing to this staring at his crestfallen expression with a strained expression of my own and a few seconds ticked by before a small knock sounded on the office door breaking the unease I felt.

"Good Merlin! Has time really flown that fast?" Professor Flitwick squeaked in surprise before checking the time. "Very well, Emily, please consider what I have said and all the best luck for your exams although I doubt you will need any."

"Good day, sir," I said standing thanking him in a small voice as I left his office to pass by his next appointment.

The few days after that had been rather uneventful with regards to the happenings in the school and my lessons had seemed to become the most monotonous places to exist in even potions had turned into a dull buzz of following instructions to the letter. My only saving grace from complete insanity was my latest hobby of spending my evenings devouring the forbidden books which the Room had conjured up for me which held my attention in a strong vice as I studied their contents in a strange desire to know more and more of what could be known. What gave an interesting amount of essence to the dying weeks of the month had become a legend to the school's student population who hero worshipped the now famous antics of the Weasley twins. The pair had successfully managed to create the largest stir in the Bridge's administration and I had to admit admiration of the clever bit of spell work and social manipulation they had managed. Their escape was managed with the greatest show down with the Bridge after creating a swamp in the east wing of the fifth floor and summoning their broomsticks they flew off with a command to the Poltergeist Peeves to create mayhem for our new dictatorship. I was for once present and I was glad for it because the stories spread of the event was entirely grandiose and fantastical that I wouldn't be quite sure who to believe. They had inspired upon the populace an act of silent resistance with their products which caused much difficulty for the Bridge in her lessons and after placing four classes in detention in the weak attempt to find out the persecutor she gave up and the lesson tom foolery continued. The corridors had become a place of much alertness finding one wearing Bubble-Head Charms in protection from Dung Bombs which had become popular, but there was no one who embraced giving the Bridge hell more than Peeves. The Poltergeist had given the word hell new meaning and while he did no actual damage to any of the students other than causing absolute chaos and terror by juggling flaming torches above their screaming heads and dropping a bag of tarantulas in the middle of breakfast. He had taken to flying through the school, cackling as he did so, upending tables, snuffing out candles, toppling over suits of armour and vases, knocking neatly piled pieces of parchment out of windows or into fires, smashing lanterns even flooding the second floor by pulling the taps out of their sockets. He had also on two occasions locked a terrified Mrs Norris in a suit of armour only to be rescued hours later by a harried looking Filch who out of the entire staff seemed to be the only one following the Bridge around like a faithful puppy. The Bridge had also taken a bit of strain after being followed around by Peeves who blew raspberries any time she spoke and having to take care of the chaos which had erupted with half her Inquisitorial Squad being put in the Hospital Wing due to "mysterious causes". I could quite confidently state that this was the type of chaos to enjoy with a legitimate cause none of that psychological mayhem which _he_ seemed to constantly rave on about.


	11. Chapter 11

As a rule I did not look at mirrors; in the mornings when I was showering I covered the glass with a spare towel and after using the lavatories I would keep my head down and focussed on the sink. In all honesty I was terrified of my reflection and I did as much as was possible to avoid it and the stark truth of my developing psychosis which was evident by the dark bruises under my eyes which a few of my teachers winced at whenever they saw me in classes. As much as I was fearful of my reflection I also desperately avoided sleep and the nightmares which accompanied it resulting in waking with bile burning at my throat. As opposed to getting a healthy amount of sleep I avidly read the forbidden books which the Room provided until I passed out for two hours maximum from sheer exhaustion and eye strain. The forbidden books were another issue which I needed to address; while I called what I did in every ounce of spare time I possessed intellectual comparison it was really what professor Flitwick may have feared. I had exhausted my ability to study for the year as I had nothing else to learn and instead found myself delving into the Dark Arts and while I desperately tried to fool myself into thinking it was something lighter there was no doubt that I was going down the path that my mother had run from.

Much like her sister, Andromeda, my mother was revolted by the beliefs and practices her family held and favourably preached about whenever they had the opportunity and on her graduation from Hogwarts she fled the country and the tensions with Lord Voldemort to a place which was equally if not more depraved, but very unknown to the Wizarding world: Gotham City. After meeting my father and her pregnancy with me she wrote with much excitement to Andromeda and her cousin, Sirius Black, who warned her of the troubling times, but replied with much happiness that she had managed the break from her dark family. She barely returned to England and the only times she did was to facilitate a travelling means for me to meet my cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, and her parents and the one occasion of meeting Sirius. After her murder when I was in my first year of Muggle Schooling I only saw Andromeda and her family for a few weeks of summer before her assistance with my first year of Hogwarts and apart from the occasional letter all correspondence with the other half of my family was cut off. I did not see the need to inform any of them of my father's death as no help was needed to arrange a funeral seeing as the city and several donations were all too eager to put in a hand and an adoption was processed the muggle way as their existence in the authorities' eyes was of a non entity.

My obsession with the Dark Arts began as a strictly comparison project, but bloomed into something much bigger as my lessons became more boring and I found less to study. The only way, I had reasoned with myself, to keep me entertained and less insane was to keep reading and absorbing all the knowledge that the Room had come to offer and while I did not practise any of the spells, for the lack of any target, I certainly was able to put any aspiring seventh year Death Eater to shame with my know how. What ate at me during this process was the way that _his_ voice kept on cropping up whispering to me about how I was falling down a very dark hole and how on the inside I was just as dark and crazy as _him_ which freaked me out more and shoved my head deeper into the books. My addiction grew so bad that I wasn't even aware of the last Quidditch match's existence until I lazily wondered out loud about when it would be when Luna told me that it had been won by Gryffindor two weeks prior to my complete mortification. I had become very bad with my discretion as to the dark bruises under my eyes that Draco on one occasion threatened to drag me to the Hospital Wing lest he was able to see that I had gotten sleep to which I replied that there was far too little time for sleep until exams were over which he left at that warning me that after the last one was written he would escort me for a nap.

The moment that professor Flitwick had been talking about had finally arrived; June had swept its warm way in and with it the O.W.L exams which were due very soon. The teachers had started their major freak out of the year by constantly reminding the students, who were in a complete panicked frenzy already, to study hard and that this was the corner stone of our Wizarding careers and a whole lot of drivel relating to being serious and all of that. They had taken away home work; this was a large reason to cause alarm within me and I was the only one to verbalise my objections to this new development and while the usual few of my teachers looked at me in concern they just told me to focus on passing the exams to my blank wide eyed expression dismissing me to my next lessons. With my being ready to write my exams then and there the only thing I was able to do was briefly skim through my text books during breakfast and continue my descend into the Dark Arts while trying my damndest to ignore everything else around me which may trigger another episode. The weekends were the worst as there were no lessons to attend to and no assignments which needed pruning and I spent one such entire breakfast hour staring at my food not touching anything with a vacant expression on my face. I picked up distantly that people were attempting to sell each other brain performance enhancers which I found hilarious and wondered if they had any inkling of the new product on the muggle market called Ritalin. I found the drug an interesting type as when it failed as an anti-depressant the engineers behind it marketed it as a control for Attention Deficiency Disorders and it became a huge hit in the middle to upper classes having the ability to focus people for long periods of time and bettering their recall. I did not buy into any of the "stimulants" mainly because no one approached me nowadays and I was completely ready for the exams and perfectly able to recall information that did not involve memories. People had long ago wandered out of the Great Hall either to study or enjoy a sunny day while I still sat in a catatonic state trying to will the exams closer. I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat next to me and I jumped as the sound was loud in comparison to the now empty Great Hall. I blinked a few times shaking my head as I did so and turned to meet the perturbed face of Draco who sat on the bench next to me and faced towards me.

"Spill," was the only thing that was shortly shot at me.

"Spill what?" I asked confused as to what he was on about.

"Oh, I wonder? Maybe you could start with the bags around your eyes or have you taken to getting your face socked every other evening?" Draco sarcastically drawled.

"Uh, not that I am aware of, I told you that I have been studying too much to care about sleep," I turned to stand and he pulled me down instantly.

"Rubbish! At first I didn't bother you because we still had school work which had us awake at all hours with studying to top it, but now we don't have that to worry about getting assignments in and I have seen that I have been able to keep proper sleeping hours now with that time dedicated to studying." He started and sighed. "No, something is going on and we are not leaving this table until you tell me what it is."

"Why!?" I whined not wanting this conversation to happen.

"Hah! She asks why when she looks like the dead," he laughed to himself. "The reason why is because you need to talk, out of all the students in this school you look like the one who is going to drop first even though you are on top of your work, I have spoken to professor Snape and he told me so, but you, you look as if you have the hugest weight on your shoulders and if you don't let go of anything soon you are going to break."

"Well, what do you expect? I don't sleep!" I yelled a bit of my tension releasing itself.

"Why don't you sleep!?" he yelled back at me.

"Oh, I don't know! Why else would crazy little Emily not want to sleep!? Maybe because she is as insane as that psycho freak made her to be!" My yelling continued and in some small part of my haze I was glad that the doors were shut so the yelling match wouldn't be overheard.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Draco asked much calmer now.

"I am scared, damn it," my voice broke and I slumped in posture. "I am scared."

"Why?" He seemed unsure of what to do. "It's just sleep."

"That's easy for you to say when your mind is in order, but I don't have your luck when it comes to such a sheltered existence." I looked into his confused eyes and I rested my elbows on the table pushing my hands into my strained eye sockets. "I don't sleep. I don't sleep because whenever I allow myself more than a small amount of time I will always end up going back."

"Going back?" His voice sounded incredulous and heavily confused.

"Nightmares; they aren't the run of the mill having to take a test naked with the whole school watching type, no." I dropped my hands and stared at the empty table. "Every time I manage to have that bit too much sleep my mind shows me the most frightening combination of everything I have ever tried to suppress, every repressed memory, every memory I don't want to think about; it all comes back and it isn't pleasant."

"Memories," he mulled that word over for a while. "Isn't there supposed to be only the one?"

"There is one thing you need to remember is that the bastard who blew up the King's Cross left no stone unturned when it came to bringing my city down to its knees," as I said this I heard Draco shift around probably in discomfort.

"What did he do to you?" I heard his voice grow stronger.

"Terrible things, things which I would like left well unspoken of, my face was only the cherry on the top of _his_ icing covered chocolate cake," my voice was dead and my nerve endings on high alert.

"Have you told anyone?" his voice sounded soft.

"Only the right people when it was necessary and for the rest _he_ relentlessly splashed my face in the media whenever _he_ got a little bored," my mind flicked back to the CCTV camera which was always trained on me.

"Wait, what? What did he do?" Draco's voice was alarmed.

"It wasn't anything that you would have been able to see, but in _his_ campaign against the city _he_ loved to taunt the public with their helplessness." I squeezed my eyes shut trying to rid the images.

"Merlin's beard!" he swore. "That guy, he, he is worse than anything I have ever heard about. If I had any idea-"

"What? What could anyone have done?" I started still trying to shake the images. "_He_ is nothing that the world has ever seen, _he_ kills without a second though and without reason, _he_ is so flexible that _he_ doesn't even own real estate and instead breaks into and uses other's property, the world knows nothing about _him_ not even _his_ first name, _he_ is insanity. I ask again what anyone could have done."

"Nothing," was his defeated response. "Why didn't you write to Andromeda then?"

"I couldn't, magic doesn't exist to muggles remember? Fancy that, the grieving orphan who lost her mind spouting off rubbish about her non-existent family on her mother's side." I shook my head and looked Draco in a hope that the images would disappear. "That would hardly be very conducive to the Statue of Secrecy now, would it?"

"No it wouldn't," he grimly shook his head. "Why didn't you go to Madam Pomfrey in the beginning of the term to help you have a dreamless sleep?"

"It won't work," he looked as if he was about to argue and I carried on. "The things I am on are designed to put me to sleep and kill the dreams and they don't work."

"Well, what do you do when you don't sleep?" he looked as if there was nothing, but to sleep.

"I study and read up more on the subject," the half truth was all he was going to get of my midnight endeavours.

"I suppose that is okay then," he sighed. "I am going to speak to my mother about getting you proper amounts of sleep after exams are over because I am sure that there is something that she can do about your dilemma."

"Oh, no, you don't need to worry about it," I started to protest and he cut me off by pulling us out of our seats.

"Oh, yes, I do need to worry about it," he said as he led us out of the hall. "For now though, I need someone competent enough to quiz me and my house mates don't posses that quality."

"But, what?" he dragged my protesting self out of the Great Hall and to the Library.

Draco made sure to keep me glued to his side that weekend, during the day time that is, managing to drag me to lunch and supper as well and while it was a bizarre experience of helping him study, his raised eye brows of my in depth knowledge of the syllabus was met with a shrug, I was certainly kept distracted. I couldn't help my constant glancing towards the Restricted Section with an itch to dive into the books there when we were seated in the packed Library the students there trying to cram as much as they could before the term's end. Draco's intervention had somehow helped prolong the attack so the Saturday evening all I received was the sneering voices shouting at me as I poured over the books. That Sunday the examiners had arrived during dinner and after rolling my eyes at the surrounding student's awed and frightened responses I had enough of the social atmosphere and went to Draco's table to tell him that I was spent for the weekend and was going to revise Charms. I stalked off to the Room and raced in pulling out the book which I had marked as next on the reading list which I consumed with my ever growing passion in this field. That evening I had managed to cram in four books a new record foregoing the passing out phase and I was thoroughly disappointed when the clock I had the Room create chimed to five which was my signal to place a Disillusionment Charm on myself and race to the Ravenclaw Tower to freshen up.

The exams had begun. That first morning after receiving Bruce's letter wishing me luck with the exams I had sat half heartedly picking at my toast while skimming through my Charms text book almost about ready to gouge my eyes out at it. Door under a Bridge had kicked me out after the Hall had cleared to my surprise and I found myself sitting in the Entrance Hall on the floor to wait for the examiners to open the doors for the exam to begin. They were understandably surprised when they opened them to find that I was still slumped and waiting for them to allow everyone in. I stood immediately and sat in my directed seat before the rest of my year had wandered in. The exam was long, that shed some favour towards it, but it was irritatingly easy in that several questions were the same thing or same calibre. I wisely stayed away from the Room against my desires to quench my thirst for the books as I acknowledged the fact that I may lose time and thus be late for the practical which was a great relief in that I had to concentrate, albeit lazily, in order for my spells to be produced. After the practical I fled to the Room and beat my four book record by consuming five before rushing off for Transfiguration the very next morning. I continued my routine of spending my evenings embroiled in the mysteries of the Dark Arts soon reaching a record of seven, my skim reading while absorbing information was improving, and spending my time from breakfast to the practical exam in either the Great Hall or the Entrance Hall. I was eager to show off in my practical exams even taking my Defence Against the Dark Arts examiner by surprise by knowing the counter to a particularly dark spell. My only difficulty in the very beginning of the practical exams was when instead of being called out as "Dent" as everyone expected my name was called "Wayne, Emily" with some people giving me sideways glances and whispering to their friends which I shrugged off and before an inquisition could be launched I had disappeared to the Room. With Ancient Runes covered by Friday afternoon I grinned widely before making my way to the Room to improve my skimming and absorbing skills while learning more of what the Room came to offer.

That weekend was spent with the obligatory breakfast with Draco and running off before he could accost my company for quizzes, surely he could find better less distracted people to quiz him, to the Room to do my best to consume the books which were my ironic light to a dark situation. By the time Monday had dawned I had managed to boost my seven books record to ten while still retaining all the knowledge that I had acquired. Potions was by far more mentally engaging, the practical that is, and it scored bigger points than the others had with my personal scoring system. What got higher marks was the Care of Magical Creatures practical as we had to deal with a few of the slightly less dangerous, but still dangerous creatures which we had studied in class. While the Astronomy practical had managed to get a descent scoring the show stealer was what everyone had managed to witness that evening. The Bridge and several Aurors had taken a stroll to professor Hagrid's hut where it was obvious that he was about to be fired, however, it wasn't executed very gently as it resulted in professor Hagrid fleeing from the grounds with his dog, Fang, with poor professor McGonagall, who was trying to help diffuse the situation, being hit with four stunners to the chest. After the students fuss over the event and our examiners' sad dismissal I rushed to the back of the Room to fit five books before the chime to get ready for the day. As the History of Magic exam was only after lunch I eagerly made my way back to the Room and set the chime to before lunch and reached into the back of the archives to make a horrible discovery. In my blind haze of distracting myself I had exhausted the only thing that I hadn't exhausted and was left with one book, one final book. Where ever was I to turn now? After venting my frustration by releasing a strangled sounding scream I sighed and slid down to consume my last book that the Room was able to provide. It took me less than ten minutes to skim through it and when I found myself inspecting the cover for any hidden pages I slapped myself with the book and neatly slid it into the place where I had found it. I stepped out of the Room one last time and aimlessly wandered around the castle deep in thought about my next step into the pool of self distraction and found myself slumped against the stone steps of the Entrance Hall satiating my boredom by revising for my exam. After tossing my book onto the floor in front of me I thought about what my doctors had told me after going through my abduction; they had told me that distracting myself would only help in the short term of my recovery, what would only work in the long run would be to confront my problems head on and speak honestly with friends who would be able to help and understand. For once I had decided that I would be honest and listen to my doctor's advice so when the Great Hall filled with students for lunch I confidently walked in with them and sat next to Luna while taking a small selection of food for myself which I picked on.

"Hey Luna?" I sheepishly started a small conversation.

"Hello," she replied. "Are you excited for the end of today's exams?"

"Yes, very," my response was eager. "What are you doing after classes today?"

"Oh, nothing of much consequence, why?" she dreamily spoke.

"How about I meet you at your class at the end of the day and we can go catch the dying hours of the sunlight?" I asked meekly.

"You didn't have to ask you know, of course I would be happy to," she sounded at least happy.

"Great, these exams have been wearing me thin." I said casually. "How have you been coping with the end of the year?"

"The same as ever although I do hope professor McGonagall comes back soon we are terribly lacking in Transfiguration," her voice was sad at the mention of professor McGonagall's plight and I found reason to sympathise with her, the professor was a brilliant teacher.

Our conversation faded somewhat and soon it was time for me to do my usual wait on the Entrance Hall's floor for the exam doors to open and allow for us to write the final paper. I found that it was the easiest out of them all and scored very low on my scoring chart although Harry running out of the exam half way through it in a bit of a panic did give it props to the entertainment side of it. I concluded my exam and after depositing my bag in my dorms I made my way to Luna's last class and after they were let out we followed Ginny Weasley down along a first floor corridor until we were stopped by a few raised voices from inside a class room. After we all exchanged a few confused glances Ginny opened the door to Harry, who was in a state, and his two friends Hermione and Ron, who looked as if they were struggling to accept a concept. Luna and I drifted in after Ginny and the door shut sealing our fates for a very interesting evening.


	12. Chapter 12

When I look back on the entire event in retrospect it was probably the mounting sleep deprivation of the past few months that had me acting so impulsively irrational and rather insanely stupid. The shouting voices from the other side of the door eventually transpired to be Harry understandably freaking about a vision he had received from Voldemort showing him Sirius being tortured by the man himself for some reason or another at the Ministry in the Department of Mysteries. I was instantly concerned and immediately volunteered myself for a look out post and the rescue mission which had all that were present looking at me strangely to which I told them that my mother never believed the hogwash and injustice that he was imprisoned over and neither did I. They all seemed to fly with it and soon a plan was laid out that Harry and Hermione would affirm that Sirius was at the Ministry while Ron would head the Bridge off with a tale that Peeves was doing his usual stint in the Transfiguration Department and Ginny, Luna and I would be the lookout guards while telling everyone that the Bridge's office corridor was filled with Garrotting Gas. That did not work out too well because Peeves was already wrecking another part of the castle and the Bridge had set Stealth Sensoring Spells on her office so immediately knew when she was being lied to by a panting Ron. Ginny, Luna and I were caught off guard with Neville Longbottom, who was trying to help Ginny, being dragged into the Bridge's office by the Slytherin Suck-ups, I mean Inquisitorial Squad. Draco's face went white when I greeted him jovially telling him that this was a far better substitute for studying all day long and his glare shut me up although the image of his white face kept on making me giggle. The Bridge had interrogated Harry for a while although I didn't catch everything said because I was too busy trying to stifle my giggles and when professor Snape left, after telling the Bridge that he had no Veritaserum left subsequently being put on probation, he frowned at my clearly lacklustre behaviour. The Bridge was threatening Harry with the Cruciatus Curse when Hermione gave the best performances I had ever seen in real life which convinced me that she was a Drama nerd before Hogwarts and bluffed us out of the truth by saying that we were involved with a secret weapon made by professor Dumbledore. Shortly after a small argument and the Bridge's departure with Harry and Hermione to the Forbidden Forest the rest of us left behind burst into action taking down the Slytherin Suck-ups, did I mean Inquisitorial Squad? It was so spectacularly hilarious that on our way down to help Harry and Hermione in the Forest we all had a bit of a laugh at the image of them all incapacitated in some way or another. We had found Harry and Hermione running to the forest arguing about something and covered in blood. Harry had tried to dissuade us from coming on the rescue mission, but after an amount of clever protests on our side we managed to stay on the operation. Luna had pointed out the Thestrals for a feasible means of transportation and after waiting for seven to show up Harry, Neville, Luna and I had confidently strode up to our mounts. That left Hermione, Ron and Ginny looking rather bewildered so after a small huff Luna helped them find a ride of their own before Harry tentatively spoke out our destination to the skeletal horses.

After a small moment the Thestrals unfolded their leathery wings and with a pleasant jolt to my stomach we were high in the sky flying across the country in the freezing clouds. The ride was comfortable enough as in my youth I had taken a few horse riding lessons much like the rest of the children in my class so I was able to get my posture correct enough and I kept my head forward on the mission. As we started our decline to land I heard a shriek which I shrugged my shoulders to with the lights of London coming into view with what seemed to be a few charred out buildings. Trying to squash a feeling of guilt I gently dismounted the steed who wandered off after a pat and I looked to the ground to see what I had landed on and my guilt instantly came rushing back. I picked up the newspaper with a blaring headline and hurriedly folded it walking with the others to a telephone box which said it was out of order. While Harry dealt with the mechanisms of our entry I discretely opened and scanned the article with my improved skim reading techniques and what I found bothered me somewhat. _He_ seemed to have come true to _his_ word and had invaded London with letters to the press with horrific videos sent to the news stations while going on a blow up important monuments rampage. _He_ blamed the entire affair on me and said that the only place I belonged in was Gotham and consequences would be dire if I wasn't sent back home. The police and press was naturally concerned saying rubbish along the lines of doing their best to apprehend the terrorist. I trailed at the back of the group when we were let out of the telephone box and shredded the article before setting it on fire and leaving the burning paper behind. I determinedly set my face and posture forwards and told myself that I would not compromise this rescue mission by behaving like a complete wimp. The Atrium of the Ministry was eerily empty as we strode into the elevators and took the ride nine floors below the ground before scrambling to a rather plain looking black door. We entered through the unassuming black door and found ourselves in a circular room which had several doors to pass through so we did with a scene of trial and error before coming to our destination which was a room full of glowing orbs on top of towering shelves.

We had found ourselves in a trap. After Harry had removed a glowing orb which had his name on several Death Eaters had appeared from the shadows and after recognising Lucius Malfoy among them I shifted myself to the back of the group my insides cringing at the awkwardness of the situation. Lucius had obviously heard about my father's death and Draco was no doubt sending reports back home about my behaviour for the past few months so I did not desire this as our reunion. When Bellatrix Lestrange had appeared shouting insults at Harry my jaw had hit the ground realising the severity of my disconnection from the world as I did not ever learn the name of those who had escaped from Azkaban all those months ago in January. Harry had exchanged a few scathing remarks with the Death Eaters who were brave enough to talk and sent a discrete signal for us to run which resulted in the group getting split up with us all running off and duelling for our lives. In some twist I had gone off on my own and when confronted by a few Death Eaters I shot off the first spell which came to mind which was a particularly dark curse; it was a neurologically degenerative curse which when hit would cause one intense pain before passing out with their Nervous System eating itself up and would cause death within the first twenty four hours. I left the few that I had cursed and found myself in the room which had most of the rescue mission's party entranced; the room with the veil which I hid myself behind to regroup my thoughts and tactics to find the others. I did not have much time to think before Harry and Neville burst through with the remaining Death Eaters hot on their trail. Bellatrix had held up Neville as bait for Harry to hand over the glowing orb, which ended up being a prophecy, and as Harry was handing it over to Lucius five people rushed into the room causing pandemonium. I recognised four as being Sirius, Nymphadora Tonks, and two of our old professors, Lupin and Moody, but they all had seemed to steal the show by handling the Death Eaters as well as they could with Light Magic. In the chaos of the duel I had made my way to the door while hitting someone with the degenerative curse and found professor Dumbledore in all his furious and powerful glory entering the room. I turned to watch the scene of him dealing with the situation, but became distracted as I saw Bellatrix duelling Sirius with her blasting him through the veil. The room stopped for me as I slipped a little into my mind and was in such a numbed state that when Bellatrix fled the room pulling me with her I did not make much of an effort to protest. She ran us out of the circular confusing room and into the elevator and snapped her fingers in front of my face distracting me from the flashing images.

"Ah, that seemed to have done the trick," was the first thing I registered. "Now that we have a small amount of time to ourselves I would like to catch up."

"Catch up?" I asked, but she ignored me.

"Tell me, has your mother, my darling sister, and father, that demon tempter, really died in the time that I have been away?" she looked intently at me.

"Um, yeah," my voice was rather slow. "For mother it was rather quick, a simple shot to the head. For father it took being half blown up and a fall from some scaffolding to do the final blow."

"Pity, I would have loved to give them my congratulations if you know what I mean," she started. "Draco wasn't lying about the face, but be a dear and tell me the how."

"Well, I don't really remember the entire event, but the guy who blew my father up kind of broke out of _his_ incarceration and when it was winter break _he_ cornered me and did this." I didn't really know why I was telling her this, but I was really tired and wasn't really focussed on any inhibitions.

"So what has gotten you in a huff about nightmares?" she asked straight to the point which was pleasant for a change.

"Uh, if I tell you this can you promise that you aren't going to tell Aunt Narcissa?" I blinked sleepily.

"Yes fine," she snapped impatiently.

"Okay. While my father was chasing down the bad guy in my city the bad guy kind of kidnapped me for leverage if _he_ ever needed it or was using it, I don't know, but anyway while the whole leverage thing was going on this guy tortured me for a few believable screams and it was really terrible because _he_ made me watch everyone die and killed someone every time I cried about it." I must have been really tired because I was spilling my guts to the wrong person. "Oh, yeah _he_ also gave me pneumonia which means that the cold and wet doesn't really do well with my chest."

The elevator pinged and the smooth woman's voice told us that we had reached the Atrium where there were still no people and somewhere in my confused mind I remarked that the Ministry was even worse than Gotham with safety and security. Bellatrix shook her head at my glazed over expression and pulled me out of the elevator to start walking towards the telephone box while constantly checking her surroundings.

"So who have you told the complete truth to?" she started as we began walking.

"No one really; everyone in Gotham knows, not about how my father became a murderous lunatic because of Rachel's death, but everything else they knew of and those pitying looks became really irritating especially with the media so I decided to not tell anyone," I plodded along with her.

"I see," she seemed to considering something. "Who in your little group of ruffians knows anything of the Dark Arts?"

"What!?" the mention of the word had me glancing around nervously and guiltily. "Not me that's for sure!"

"What is wrong with you?" she looked at my guilty expression. "Ah, does Emily have a dirty little secret?"

"Shush! I glanced around wildly. "No one must know! They might find out!"

"Find out what?" She stooped to look into my eyes as the images of the people I had shot ran amok through my head.

"Nothing, there is nothing to find out!" She did not seem convinced by my words that were becoming more and more confused due to my tiredness.

"Sure there is nothing to figure out," she said sarcastically and her voice lit up when she saw something over my shoulder. "I hope this doesn't put a damper on our lovely aunt niece relationship here, but seeing as it is Potter you won't hurt that much."

"What," the words were only just out of my mouth before I was flung around to face a Cruciatus Curse cast by an angry Harry who looked like he had a vendetta to uphold.

The pain was insurmountable to anything that I had ever experienced, but it was briefly lived although I had sunk to my knees with a small shriek escaping my mouth. Bellatrix had laughed while pointing out his error before him to his shocked and white expression and he instantly hid behind the other side of the Fountain of Magical Brethren while she stepped around me. She tossed a few taunts his way while the two exchanged a few spells which missed their targets and thankfully me who had moved forward to the Watch Wizard's desk because I really needed a surface that wasn't the floor to sit on. Their words had progressed into Harry telling her that the prophecy had been smashed and that Voldemort wouldn't be too pleased about that fact while I wondered the practicality of having such an important object made of something as frail as glass. Bellatrix was understandably enraged as was evident in the way she screeched at Harry trying to call him out on his "lie" which he only laughed at thus making her angrier. It was at the pinnacle when I was briefly considering the desk as a viable option for a nap location when Lord Voldemort's appearance made me double take and slap my forehead to reaffirm that, indeed, he was there. It took Voldemort looking into Harry's eyes to confirm that the prophecy had been destroyed and I clapped my hands only to be subdued by everyone's venomous glares with me giving a sleepy eyed pout. Bellatrix had flung herself at Voldemort begging for forgiveness, but he ignored everything she said and focussed on Harry who looked as if he was in dire pain and immensely terrified. Voldemort had sent a killing curse towards Harry only for it to be intercepted by a statue and I couldn't help the reverent "wow" that escaped my lips as another glare was sent my way before Voldemort breathed a hateful "Dumbledore".

I looked to the golden gates that housed the elevators and sure enough professor Dumbledore was back to save the day which was awesome to my fuzzy feeling brain so I fist pounded the air learning to keep the sound effects to a minimum. In my victory haze I had wandered over to Harry to share with him that we were saved only to find that both Harry and I were pushed to the side and shielded by the statue which had saved Harry from Voldemort's killing curse. I looked to professor Dumbledore to ask what was going on to see that the other statues had taken life with the witch chasing down Bellatrix and pinning her down and the Goblin and House Elf were stationed at the fireplaces along the wall. I was about to ask professor Dumbledore how the fireplaces had appeared as I had not noticed them earlier when I was cut off by my awe over the duel which had erupted between him and Voldemort. It was truly incredible especially when Fawkes, the Phoenix, had consumed one of Voldemort's killing curses and what topped my cake was when he disappeared like it was nobody's business. Bellatrix's agonised shriek of terror drowned out my gush of air in complete admiration of the magic involved and she dissolved into tears as she realised that she was probably doomed. I shifted to share a stupid grin with Harry who was already moving as if he was about to stand when professor Dumbledore told him to stay where he was in a frightened voice and I looked around to check out any potential danger before frowning at nothing. I suddenly became alarmed by Harry who had started writhing on the floor moaning in pain sounding rather intelligible and professor Dumbledore was immediately by his side, but what had my heart beating frantically as I sat mere inches from his was the fact that his eyes had become a scarlet red. Harry spoke in the high cold voice that belonged to Voldemort telling professor Dumbledore to kill him before a strangled yell sounded from him and I flicked around to the laugh of Bellatrix seeing Voldemort and the Atrium full of Ministry officials. My aunt winked at me before Voldemort grabbed her and disappeared without a sound to the flabbergasted expressions of everyone present. Harry stirred shaking uncontrollably as he put on his glasses which had fallen at some point and we looked around at the noisy hall as Cornelius Fudge, who was gibbering like a stunned infant, was led forward by the Goblin and the House Elf. Professor Dumbledore had approached the bewildered man and several people had raised their weapons in surprise at his sudden appearance as he calmly explained about the Death Eaters who were bound in the, now apparent, Death Chamber down below. Fudge had threatened professor Dumbledore who calmly responded that the attempt would be simply futile so the Minister conceded defeat by telling a few Aurors to go deal with the problem downstairs. Fudge had started to inquire about what had transpired when professor Dumbledore told him that Harry and I would first need to be returned to Hogwarts and to that he had looked at us wildly before starting another inquisition. Professor Dumbledore seemed to be working off his own steam as he created a Portkey out of a piece of statue and despite the Minister's protests carried it over to Harry and me telling us to take it. We looked at each other and with a blasé shrug we placed our hands over the piece of broken statue to feel the familiar sensation of a tug on the naval before being flung into the Headmaster's office.

On our arrival we were met with silence from the portraits on the walls who managed to sleep through the thudding sound of the Portkey landing on the floor and our loud exhales of breath. Nothing seemed out of place so I left Harry to his thoughts which he seemed to have many of while I stood examining the floor which had become very interesting and I wondered if this floor was to be the place of my nap. One of the portraits which had a striking Black resemblance lazily mentioned Sirius and my jaw dropped for the second time that evening in shock while I forgot that paintings weren't real people in that they could not possibly posses the knowledge of a death without being told. I saw Harry's expression grow extremely morose and I lumbered over to him to give him a hug which he received in a surprised manner while I mumbled that Sirius was a good man and that his memory would be spoken of in reverence. Harry had taken me by the arms eventually and led me to the chairs in front of the magnificent desk and sat us down while another portrait remarked that our presence very well meant that the Headmaster was to return soon. I looked at Harry's downcast eyes and decided to share the load by telling him that if ever he wanted to talk I would be there because I knew what it was like to have lost a loved one. Before he could pass a retort on that note, however, professor Dumbledore had walked through the fireplace which had burst into flame with the portraits cheering on his return. Harry and I blankly watched as professor Dumbledore placed a baby Phoenix, which I gathered to be Fawkes, at the bottom of a perch and settled at the head of the desk which also looked like a great napping position now that I thought about it. He greeted us and I mumbled out the morning greeting while Harry remained stoic in his seat. He spoke a few more words which I made out as having seen a lot and several questions, but I became very distracted by the surface of the desk as my body started shutting down. It became apparent that I was being sent to the Hospital Wing for a check up and a good nap as Harry was leading me to the door and I waved to the Headmaster as I saw their mouths moving around several words which I couldn't make out.

I stumbled around the castle for a while deciding whether or not I wanted to listen to people and go for a check up and a nap when I was going to be getting one the first week I was out of term anyway. I had made my way half way to the Room just out of habit and realised that I had nothing more to learn so I turned to make my way to the Library slamming into a few walls in my wanderings. My mind had jumbled on a few words for a while before the term "free check up" crossed it and that made my decision for me to go because what else did I have to do other than breaking into the Library? I fumbled my way through the double doors to see Madam Pomfrey running diagnostic charms on several people while healing them. I looked to the beds and while they looked comfortable enough to sleep on my body had decided on passing out on my feet and to fall onto the floor where I was rudely slapped awake. Neville and Ginny who had already been fixed up and were simply hovering rushed over to me while their voices blurred around me as I was quite unable to comprehend anything they were saying. The medic-witch, who had heard the commotion told Neville to bring me to a bed and told Ginny to retrieve a Dreamless Sleep potion for me. I looked to the vial and back at Neville and Ginny with a confused expression on my face not quite sure what I was supposed to do. They looked to each other and sighed while Neville held me down and Ginny poured the weird tasting potion down my throat and swallowing the strange concoction I felt myself sink into the dark embrace of sleep.

I wasn't allowed out of the Hospital Wing until Sunday to make sure that I had sufficiently caught up on all of my sleep so I had Luna bring me my bag so I could write my letter to Bruce on Friday and send it before having more potion poured down my throat. I wasn't surprised to see that Harry, Neville, Ginny and Luna had constantly stopped by to visit Ron and Hermione who were still recovering from their injuries. They had also given the us the scope of what had happened during the weekend in the school while I listened to others recount the tale of how the Bridge was taken to the Hospital Wing and seemed to be undergoing a rather traumatised response. Professor Flitwick had managed to take down the Weasley Twins' swamp while leaving a small section roped off and below a window as a memorial to a good piece of magic while professor Hagrid had seemed to return from wherever he was in hiding in good spirits. That Sunday an article in the Daily Prophet had turned up refuting their claims that Harry and professor Dumbledore were no good liars and telling the Wizarding World at large that Voldemort had, indeed, returned, they had even purchased the Quibbler article from Luna's father which would allow them to go on holiday in Sweden. On my release from the Hospital Wing I had passed a limping professor McGonagall who smiled wearily at me after my happy greeting and she sent me on my way. The week after that was a bit of a blur and whenever Draco received me for the breakfast run he would turn pale and quickly usher me into my seat beside Luna as if I could possibly hurt him. On the day of her release, the Bridge had attempted to sneak out of the castle only to be ambushed by Peeves who threw walking sticks at her as she ran away with all the students watching her escape while the teachers made half hearted attempts to stop the Poltergeist.

When the day of the final feast had arrived with everyone clamouring to pack their trunks I had walked around with Luna helping her put up signs to recover her lost possessions which had been taken from her. Harry had at some point found us and after finding this out had offered his help which Luna politely declined telling him about the day her mother died and how her items always ended up coming back. We all shared a moment of reminiscence about the veil which had spoken to us in some manner before Luna and I went off to have some of the pudding which was left from the feast. On the train the next day I sat with Luna and told her everything that had happened to me the previous summer I also told her about how I was in a coma after _he_ had given me a chemical cocktail and sliced my face up. She listened and understood my reasons for not wanting for everyone to know about the details of my private life and told me that she would be delighted to meet my adoptive father one day. At the end of the train ride we split ways with a promise for a letter or two and I trailed ahead of everyone else to get through the barrier. I stepped through the magical portal and saw the remaining three from the Ministry; I distantly waved at Nymphadora whose face froze in horrified recognition and pulled up my scarf and down my glasses to search for Bruce. I found him eventually and he smiled at my scarf technique before we were off in a rush of flashing cameras and the voice of the press shouting for attention.


End file.
